A Hounslow councillor has denied a charge of fraud by abuse of position over money allegedly taken from a Southall Sikh charity where he previously served as treasurer.
Gurbachan Singh Athwal, 75, who represents Heston East on Hounslow Council, appeared at a Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 27 October and pleaded not guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position. The hearing, reported today, is the first court appearance in a case that has already reshaped the politics of the west London borough.
According to the Metropolitan Police account of the charge, the allegation is that more than £12,000 was taken from the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall community organisation and Sikh charity. Mr Athwal previously served as treasurer of the organisation between 2014 and 2022.
Everything about the alleged taking remains alleged. Mr Athwal denies the charge, and the case has yet to come to trial. Nothing in this article should be read as suggesting that the allegation has been proved.
At Tuesday’s hearing, his defence team raised procedural points, indicating that the trial venue may need to be relocated, given that he serves as an active local councillor for a ward about two miles from the initial court setting. Further hearings are scheduled in November. No specific court has been named in the reports of the case, and no specific November date has been given.
How the charge changed control of Hounslow Council
The political consequences of the charge came before the court case itself. After Mr Athwal was charged, he was suspended by the Labour Party and stripped of the Labour whip.
That single change was enough to alter the balance of power at Hounslow’s civic centre. The council lost its slim majority and tipped into no overall control, meaning no single party now holds an outright majority of seats.
For residents, the practical effect is less dramatic than the headline suggests, but it matters for how decisions get made. In a council with no overall control, the ruling group cannot simply rely on its own councillors to pass budgets, planning policies or major spending decisions. Each significant vote needs support from beyond the administration’s own benches, which usually means negotiation with opposition groups, informal agreements, or winning votes issue by issue.
Day-to-day services do not stop. Bin collections, social care, schools and planning applications all continue under the council’s officers. But the big set-piece decisions — the annual budget, council tax levels, and any controversial policy — become harder to land, and administrations in this position often have to compromise or water down proposals to get them through.
Hounslow is not the first London borough to find itself in this position, and councils in no overall control can run for years in this way. What it does mean, though, is that every tight vote now counts, and the absence of a single suspended councillor from the Labour ranks has become the difference between a majority and a hung council.
The charity at the centre of the case
The Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall is a community organisation and Sikh charity based in Southall, in the neighbouring borough of Ealing, serving one of the largest Sikh communities in the country. Mr Athwal’s alleged role in the case relates to his time as treasurer of the organisation, a post he held for eight years until 2022.
Heston East, the ward Mr Athwal represents, sits in the west of Hounslow borough, close to the boundary with the Southall area. The case therefore straddles two neighbouring west London communities: the ward he represents as a councillor, and the Southall community where the charity is based.
What the role of treasurer involves
Separately from the facts of this case, the role of a charity treasurer carries strict responsibilities under charity law. Treasurers are expected to keep proper financial records, make sure money is spent only on the charity’s purposes, and never use their position for personal benefit. Charities in England and Wales are regulated by the Charity Commission, which can investigate concerns about how a charity’s money is handled.
Fraud by abuse of position, the offence Mr Athwal is charged with, is in general terms an offence where a person who occupies a position in which they are expected to safeguard another’s financial interests dishonestly abuses that position to make a gain or cause a loss. Whether that happened in this case is a matter for the court to decide, and Mr Athwal has denied the charge.
Further hearings are scheduled in November. The case continues.
Elsewhere in London politics, Hillingdon Council has scrapped all 700 of its dedicated dog waste bins in a saving plan, while the Budget has name-checked the Bakerloo line extension alongside new tax powers for mayors.
