MILLIONAIRE estate agent Julian Brealy is behind bars today after he was jailed for 15 months for trying to corrupt a planning official.
The 51-year-old owner of Herne Bay Golf Club looked stunned as he was led to the cells on Tuesday after a sentencing hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.
Brealy – who recently sold family land for £4 million and neighbouring land for £7.5 million through his company – was found guilty of allowing Canterbury City councillor Roger Matthews to run up £34,000 in rent arrears in the hope he would represent his business interests in the council.
He was managing director of Hollanby Estates, which owned the flat in Beltinge Road where Cllr Matthews lived.
Judge David Griffiths-Jones told him "you have been foolish and arrogant", before ordering guards to take him.
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Former Lib Dem councillor Matthews, 58, who represents Greenhill and Eddington ward as an independent, had been jointly charged with corruption but found not guilty.
The unanimous verdict vindicated Matthews's claim that "he was not on the take" and it was all a "misunderstanding".
Defending Brealy, Philip Noble said if the property developer went to jail at least 30 people in Herne Bay would lose their jobs.
He told the court: "Mr Brealy has been running Herne Bay Golf Club for no charge and no salary, and has been putting in a lot of money.
"About 30 people will lose their jobs if he cannot keep running the club because he is in jail."
Judge Griffith-Jones told him: "You were keen to exploit all such development opportunities to the full ... you embarked on a course of conduct which was calculated to corrupt.
Brealy was ordered to pay £8,786 costs and disqualified from seeking public office or working as a company director for five years.
