Minister cautioned by police over criminal damage
A Government minister was arrested and accepted a police caution for criminal damage following a row with neighbours over parking, it has been revealed.
Work and Pensions Minister Chris Pond has acquired a criminal record after gluing a “no parking” sign to a neighbour’s door.
The MP for Gravesham had been using a free parking space to ensure that he could transport his heavily pregnant wife to hospital in a hurry.
His neighbour Mrs Ashton told the Mail on Sunday that she had rung Mr Pond asking him to move his car and that another neighbour Chris Brown put up the no parking notice in their mews street in Dalston, east London.
The Observer reports that Mr Pond, 52, returned home on January 6 to find the sign hanging on the wall of a communal courtyard behind his house.
Mrs Ashton, a 31-year-old personnel manager, claims that Mr Pond, apparently believing that she had put up the sign, then banged on her door, shouting loudly.
Mr Pond denies banging on his neighbour’s door, but admitted to the Mail on Sunday that he had removed the sign and stuck it to Mrs Ashton’s front door.
The sign fell off shortly afterwards, causing an alleged £120 worth of damage.
On February 2 Mr Pond was arrested following an allegation of criminal damage and released on bail.
The MP told the Observer he believes the charge against him would have been dismissed if he had gone to court, but that he had decided to accept a police caution instead, in order to avoid further upset to his family.
“Anyone can make allegations and if you are in public life, these have to be investigated, no matter how trivial they may appear,” Mr Pond told the paper.
The MP’s immediate superior, Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson told BBC News: “My actual reading of it is that it has been blown out of all proportions, but that is a matter for Chris – it is something that happened in his personal life.”
