A WHISTLEBLOWER who revealed the £140,000 pay-off given to former West Somerset Council chief executive Tim Howes says he feels vindicated after being handed a minimum three-month ban for his actions.

West Quantock district councillor Mitch Wicking could have been barred from public office for up to five years but was instead given a three-month 'slap on the wrist' by the Adjudication Panel for England on Wednesday.

Speaking exclusively to the Free Press after the hearing, Cllr Wicking said he was astonished to receive such a "lenient" sentence and believed the ruling opened the doors for other councillors to follow his lead.

He was reported to the local government watchdog the Standards Board of England by council leader Cllr Keith Ross after leaking Mr Howes' pay-off to the Free Press at the end of December 2007.

The charge was taken so seriously that the Standards Board referred it to its own higher authority, the Adjudication Panel for England, resulting in a protracted and costly 18-month-long investigation.

Yesterday (Thursday), Cllr Wicking said he had always accepted he had breached the council's code of conduct by disclosing details of the confidential deal but could not believe he had all but got away with it.

"I thought I would have received a tougher sentence," he said. "In a way this sets a precedent because it opens the way for future breaches of this nature if the penalty is going to be so lenient, which is no bad thing.

"On the other hand, maybe the panel realised I was at heart right to vent my outrage at the payments to Mr Howes and thus imposed the minimum sanction."

Mr Howes, now working as head of legal practice for Cumbria County Council, did not attend the hearing and declined to comment on the panel's decision when contacted by the Free Press.

Cllr Wicking said he was glad he had leaked the details of the pay-off and would willingly do it all over again in light of the panel's ruling.

"My conscience is clear because I know I had the backing of 99.9 per cent of the public to whom I would like to extend my grateful thanks," he said.

"Would I do it again? Yes, but I sincerely hope another situation like this never arises again and I would urge all the elected members on West Somerset Council to be tougher in the future on the clauses in the contracts of the most senior employees."

In a written submission to the panel, Cllr Wicking accepted he had no real defence, but was adamant the public had a right to know about the pay-off.

"Keeping the information I had about the confidential pay-out to Mr Howes was a secret I just couldn't withhold from the people, especially in light of the precarious financial and managerial situation the council found itself in," he said.

But Gylian Murphy, the panel's ethical standards officer representative, said Cllr Wicking could easily have vented his frustrations with the authority and the pay-off without revealing any financial figures.

She said none of the details were in the public domain until Cllr Wicking leaked them to the Free Press and said he had viewed all of the council's expenditure as "waste", despite the fact councils had to spend money on things such as "improving council houses and swimming pools and so on".

She backed her points by citing rulings from the High Court and the House of Lords, quoted high profile cases such as Spycatcher and also spoke of the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act.

After several hours of deliberation, panel chairman Beverley Primhak ruled it had not been in the public interest for Cllr Wicking to leak details of Mr Howes' pay-off.

The panel had been told his package, which contained a confidentiality clause, had been agreed by councillors behind closed doors in a confidential session of the full council on December 12 2007.

Mrs Primhak said that at the time of that meeting Cllr Wicking had agreed for the deal to be hammered out in private and he had accepted both Mr Howes' pay-off and the confidentiality clause.

She said his actions had breached Mr Howes' right to privacy, which outweighed his own claim that he too had a right to freedom of expression.

Mrs Primhak accepted the public had a right to know about how their money was spent and said the council had not shown any intention of issuing a press release to confirm it had reached a mutually acceptable deal with Mr Howes.

However, she said Cllr Wicking's disclosure of the information could have jeopardised the entire pay-off and led to serious repercussions for the council, especially as other staff could lose confidence in their employer to protect their privacy.

But Cllr Wicking - currently in London after being given a six-month leave of absence from council duties on compassionate grounds - said the ruling had made a mockery of the code of conduct and the authority of the Standards Board itself.

He even called for a "pardon" for Williton district councillor Hugh Davies who was banned from office for a year after failing to declare an interest and leave meetings when the council was discussing plans to centralise its offices.

He said Cllr Davies had faced "a far lesser allegation" yet received a much harsher penalty.

"To be banned for one year for what he was supposed to have done - when it was quite clear to everyone that he had done nothing wrong - is quite frankly a joke," he said.

"To my mind it makes a complete mockery of the whole code of conduct.

"In light of this, I think Cllr Davies should be granted the equivalent of a royal pardon and be compensated for the thousands of pounds it cost him to defend himself."