Candidate 'barred for 1968 prank'

A Labour candidate for Lincolnshire police and crime commissioner claimed yesterday he had been forced to stand down because of a £5 fine for a minor offence committed 44 years ago.

Phil Dilks said it was farcical that a "schoolboy prank" in 1968 should bar him from serving the community in Lincolnshire.

Mr Dilks was 16 when he and a group of friends on scooters visited a friend in hospital. On leaving, one of his friends took someone else's crash helmet. The helmet was later found in Mr Dilks's garage and he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods and was fined £5.

Despite serving for 17 years as a Lincolnshire councillor and for eight years as a member of the county's police authority, Mr Dilks said he had received legal advice that the conviction meant he could not stand as a commissioner.

His decision follows a similar case last month in which a Labour candidate for police commissioner in Derbyshire stood down over a conviction dating back almost half a century – only to be reinstated as a candidate.