Suffolk councillor stood down as JP before she was sacked
Dr Si�n Dawson
A Suffolk councillor stood down as a magistrate before she could be sacked by the Lord Chancellor, it has emerged.
Dr Sian Dawson, who was elected as Conservative councillor for Hadleigh North on Babergh council last May, resigned as a magistrate in July.
She had sat on the bench in west London. In the 2005 general election she was the unsuccessful Tory candidate for Bath.
Before she resigned from as a magistrate, Dr Dawson – who has a PhD degree – was the subject of an investigation by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.
It looked into allegations that she had twice tried to use her position as a magistrate for personal advantage.
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A statement from the JCIO said: “A Disciplinary Panel recommended that Dr Dawson be removed from the judiciary, but she resigned before the disciplinary process had been formally concluded.
“Her resignation took effect from 20 July 2015. Had she not resigned, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice would have removed her from judicial office.”
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No one from the office was prepared to comment further on the case but it was made clear this was not a criminal issue.
Dr Dawson described the issue as “a domestic matter.”
She said it arose out of a dispute with a tradesman who had done some work on the floor at her home. She said she would be seeking a review of the decision by the JCIO.
“It is just a housekeeping matter,” she said.
Dr Dawson runs the Queen Street Foot Care Clinic in Hadleigh and there had been speculation that she could seek the Conservative nomination to fight the town’s county council seat next year.
However Dr Dawson said she would not be putting her name forward when the party selects its candidate over the next few weeks.
