It’s over: Wronged publican drops court apology demand and settles for written sorry

After a long battle which saw his livelihood taken from him and an unjust jail term, Geoff Monks has ended his ordeal by accepting a written apology

By Sarah Ward

The former landlord paid millions of pounds by North Northamptonshire Council for the misdemeanours of its predecessor council has decided to drop his call for a court apology and accepted a letter instead.

Geoff Monks’s ordeal at the hands of the former East Northamptonshire District Council including spending several weeks in a category A jail close to child killer Ian Huntley, after trumped up food safety charges in the early 2000s led to an unpaid fine and incarceration.

He had his conviction quashed in 2015 and in 2018 began legal proceedings against East Northamptonshire Council for damages up to as much as £14m.

As the Conservative-led authority was closed down before the legal matter was concluded the liability passed on to the new North unitary which settled with Monks to the sum of £4m in December.

As part of the agreement Monks had wanted a court apology from the authority, but back in January a high court judge queried whether this was in the court’s powers and asked both legal sides to submit arguments. This would have incurred additional legal costs for both sides.

Monks met with Cllr Smithers at the High Court in January