Fake social media claim against Wigan councillor thrown out after probe

A councillor has been cleared of accusations that he created fake social media accounts for people praising his work in the community.
Coun Paul MaidenCoun Paul Maiden
Coun Paul Maiden

Hindley Green independent Paul Maiden was exonerated when a Wigan Council investigation found it was “not possible” to prove the accounts were fake and there was “insufficient evidence” to link them to him.

But he was found to be in breach of the pre-amble to the council’s Code of Conduct for Members, as he did not fully co-operate with the investigation and provide evidence to confirm the people who owned the social media accounts were genuine.

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An investigation report prepared by an audit manager at the local authority said a complaint was made about Coun Maiden using an online form on November 9.

The complainant claimed he was “setting up fake Facebook accounts to publicly thank himself for carrying out work for vulnerable and elderly residents in his ward”.

It was alleged he had created accounts in the names of Carla Reid and Jonathan Reid and used one of these in 2015 to leave a bad review for The Boulevard in Wigan.

They claimed the accounts were also used in 2020 to thank Coun Maiden for work in the community, including rehousing a family and delivering food parcels to elderly residents.

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The complainant, who was not identified in the report, said: “This is a huge act of dishonesty and is frankly disgusting, Pretending to do such heart warming work for vulnerable people, posting it publicly and all during this very herd (sic) time.”

A further allegation was later made that he had an account in the name of Mikalea Guitera, with concerns raised about a photograph posted.

The council’s report says Coun Maiden denied creating the accounts and indicated he would provide evidence to show the existence of the people named, but he failed to do so. He said the “burden of proof” was on the council and the complainant to prove he had created the accounts.

Inquiries by the council failed to confirm the existence of Carla and Jonathan Reid. They could not be found on Wigan’s council tax and electoral register systems and there was limited information publicly available on the Facebook accounts, with profile pictures which could be found on the internet.

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The report states: “From the publicly available information the use of these accounts appears to be limited as no public posts could be identified other than those provided as evidence by the complainant.”

The investigation also found a photograph posted from the account of Mikalea Guitera in March 2021 claiming to show her with Coun Maiden had been published in 2012 with a caption identifying those pictured as “Paul and Doris”.

The report found: “It is reasonable to expect that the general appearance and use of the alleged fake Facebook accounts would raise suspicion surrounding the legitimacy of the profiles for Carla Reid, Jonathan Reid and Mikalea Guitera.”

It also said it was “unclear” why Coun Maiden had not provided information to confirm the existence of those people in his defence.

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But limited by the publicly available information, the report’s author concluded it was not possible to prove the accounts were fake or that Coun Maiden had used them.

It ruled there was no evidence to show he breached the Code of Conduct for Members, but found he did breach the pre-amble by failing to co-operate and prove the people existed, which would have saved investigation costs.

Coun Maiden told the Post there was no evidence to support the allegations and the burden of proof should be on the complainant.

He said: “I have to prove it’s not me and how do I prove a negative?”

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He also highlighted the number of complaints made against him.

Coun Maiden said: “I think there is a witch hunt. It only seems to be independent councillors who get these thrown at them. I have had over 30 at least since I have got elected and every one has been thrown out.”

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