'He was wronged': Son of Aubrey Hames says his father never got over wrongful corruption claims

The son of one of Wales’ best-known local councillors in the 1970s and '80s says his father never got over being wrongly accused of corruption.

Aubrey Hames won a record compensation payout and an apology from a former prime minister after the charges against him were thrown out in 1979.

But he never worked again, although he continued to serve as a councillor until retiring from politics in 1987.

Now his son Dominic has written a book about his father’s life and achievements which focuses on the court case and its subsequent impact.

Dominic Hames says he wanted to put on record that “not only was [his father] innocent, but he was unfairly charged and the case should never come up in the first place".

With his distinctive handlebar moustache, Aubrey Hames had one of the highest profiles of any council leader in Wales.

As a Labour councillor, he led the former Newport Borough Council to which he had first been elected in 1954. He was mayor of Newport during the jubilee year of 1977.

And he had played a prominent part in many of the political battles of the period, including over the route of the M4 and the building of the recently-demolished Newport Centre.

In his full-time employment, he had been assistant docks manager at Cardiff from 1965 but his career came to an abrupt and difficult end when he was sacked in 1977, at the exact same time he was serving as Mayor of Newport.

He, along with a Cardiff businessman, was accused of corrupt practices at the docks.

Aubrey Hames was accused of granting contracts favouring the haulage firm of Lihu Ichilov and taking a family holiday to Israel, paid for by Mr Ichilov, despite having proof that he, Mr Hames, had paid for it himself.

The cases against both were thrown out in 1979 but Aubrey Hames never worked again, winning an unfair dismissal claim which led to a then record £11,635 compensation payout.

An independent review in 1985 found that the investigation was “incompetently authorised” and “incompetently conducted”.

Aubrey Hames spent nearly a decade trying to clear his name but was frustrated by bureaucracy and an unwillingness to reopen the case. He became convinced that corruption within the British Transport Police at the time, combined with a determination to prosecute local politicians, had led to his downfall.

He spoke about his experiences in a 1983 HTV documentary. Most of the photos in this article come from that programme.In it, presenter David Williams asked him “Did you wonder … what it had all been about?”

Mr Hames said then: “I’ve wondered a lot about it and don’t fully understand why the charges were brought, even now.”

Now in his book, “Mr Newport,” Dominic Hames has told his father’s life story including the court case.

In an interview with ITV Cymru Wales, he explained the impact of what happened on the family, saying: "We had no real income after that. He [Aubrey Hames] survived on his £10 a day allowance. He was in charge of the biggest budget in Newport yet had the lowest income."

And he says his father’s efforts to get answers at the highest level were because “he was wronged” and that “even though he had been cleared and the case had been thrown out there was still that belief that if you get accused of something, that you are guilty.

"Even now, when I wished him a happy hundredth birthday on Facebook last year, somebody put a post saying he was ‘charged with fiddling’.

"So 25 years after he died, people still think there’s no smoke without fire. So he just wanted it to be put down in the record that not only was he innocent, but that he was unfairly charged and the case should never have come up in the first place."

What happened may have cost Aubrey Hames his job and created stress and distress for him and his family, but Dominic believes it led to his father making more of an impact on Newport.

"It probably made his political career," he said. "I don't think he would have been the politician he became without it because he was, in effect, essentially Newport’s first full-time councillor, because he just threw himself into his council work and he was at the Civic Centre all the time.

"There's a lot of people out there who will not be aware of his legacies, the problems sorted out for their parents and grandparents.

"For instance, the residents of Banewell (an area in central Newport); Baneswell is old Victorian buildings now rather than 1970s buildings because of Aubrey Hames.

"The route of the M4 would probably now be going right through the middle of Newport. You think it’s bad now, it could have been far worse.

"And the Newport Centre was a nice legacy. No more (it’s been demolished this year) but Newport will be having a new leisure centre very soon.

"The court case … could have been a miscarriage of justice. It’s something that should never have happened, was nothing to do with him. But he should be remembered for what he has done for people."

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