THREE Bradford councillors were taken to court by the authority they represent for failing to pay their council tax on time.

Heaton Labour councillor Mohammad Shabbir, Cllr Mark Shaw, a Tory representing Bingley and Cllr Riaz Ahmed, a Lib Dem and Independent Group representative for Bradford Moor owed a combined £4,779.

Freedom of Information requests found Cllr Shaw was sent a court summons two years in a row for failing to pay a bill of £1,103 in 2016/17 and £1,580 in 2017/18.

He did not attend court, but the hearing went ahead in his absence.

When he was contacted by the Telegraph and Argus, Cllr Shaw, who has cleared the debt, said he was unaware there was a court hearing.

He said he had failed to pay it on time because his family relies on his income and other bills took priority.

"I’m a family man with a single income," he said.

"We have no benefits and I’m self employed with a young family and sometimes we have to pay bills before we pay council tax.

"My partner can’t always work because we have a young family and it’s not been easy.”

Cllr Mohammad Shabbir owed £1,186 to Bradford Council in 2016/17 and a court case took place in June 2016 after he failed to make the outstanding payments.

He was sent a court summons the following year, but paid in full before the hearing took place.

Cllr Shabbir claimed the property in question belonged to his brother and the summons was a case of mistaken identity.

He said: “It’s a shared property and my brother owns it.

“I didn’t live there, but I passed on the information and now it’s sorted.

“I have not received summons for a court hearing – it’s not accurate information.

“There are lots of people called Mohammad Shabbir in Bradford and this isn’t me.”

A court case to recover Cllr Ahmed’s money took place in September 2017.

He said he had been at his son's wedding in another country and forgot to pay the bill.

“As soon as I got back it was brought up to date," he said.

“As a councillor it shouldn’t have happened, but it was duly brought up to date.”

A Liability Order was granted at all four hearings which gave the authority permission to take legal action to recover the money if the councillors did not pay up.

However, all of the money was paid in full before this took place.