Disgraced leading councillor Tom Hollis has vowed he will not resign after he was found guilty of harassing a couple next door in lockdown and careless driving as he tore through the streets in his Range Rover. Hollis, the deputy leader of Ashfield District Council, who represents Huthwaite and Brierley, was clear in an interview with Nottinghamshire Live he will not give up the job he loves.
Hollis, 29, fell foul of the law two-and-a-half years ago. He was re-elected, despite the allegations hanging over him, achieving one of the highest majority votes in Nottinghamshire. Now there is a petition circulating online for him to be sacked set at a target of 1,500 signatures. It currently has 1,417 signatures.
Hollis defended himself over his criminal convictions, saying: "It takes a tough character to say, 'actually I'm going to move on and face it as I should do, be a strong person and accept what has happened and move past it'." Hollis was "disappointed" at the guilty verdicts and plans to appeal.
READ MORE: Speeding Nottinghamshire politician was 'bouncing all over the place' after bingo
It all began with fractious and alarming conversations between Hollis and neighbours, Shannon Jones-Golding, and her partner, Luke Golding. Mobile phone footage filmed by mother-of-two Mrs Jones-Golding, 29, recorded her saying to camera, "here we have Councillor Hollis screaming over the fence yet again" and "this is Councillor Hollis aggressively shouting over the fence yet again".
She claimed on the footage he has "threatened that man over there with a six-week old baby in his arms", referring to her 31-year-old husband.
Mrs Jones-Golding had claimed Hollis held regular council meetings, with music, in his blow-up hot tub, but this was hotly denied by the councillor himself. And Judge Leo Pyle had accepted the defendant's description of this as being "ludicrous and frustrating".
Hollis did have a hot tub at the time, he told Nottinghamshire Live, but he wasn't holding meetings in it. The judge accepted at this time Hollis and fellow councillors were doing much public good
"The judge made it very clear at no time had I breached Covid laws"
"It was acknowledged, no one got into the hot tub and no one came into the back garden," said Hollis. "The judge made it very clear at no time had I breached Covid laws or had any visits or anybody in the hot tub".
He picked up his £200 Aldi hot tub from the Specialbuys aisle at Aldi, and placed it in his back garden. It even had a three-year warranty. His ex-partner's children used it.
Council workers came to the front of the property in Windmill Close, Sutton-in-Ashfield, back in May 2020 when the UK was still in the throes of the first national lockdown. Hollis, classed as a keyworker, was running around helping his constituents through a difficult time.
He said of his home: "It was my work address...like 10 Downing Street, and I work from a council office. It was 8 until 8, but my duties did not stop there." Mrs Jones-Golding claimed Hollis made multiple calls to the police, sent her a malicious email and bible quotes, and said "he only wants to deal with happy members of the community".
She asked on camera: "Does that look like a happy member of the community? I think you need to rethink what you do, Mr Hollis. What a joke."
Their unneighbourly rows escalated, mainly with a six-foot high wooden fence separating them and with Hollis standing on a coffee table. Hollis's 999 call was played in court, which was another segment of evidence after he reported to police he was "threatened with a knife a week ago by my neighbour" and "I'm absolutely sick of it".
He could be heard on the call saying "don't come near me with that" and "he has come at me with something again - I think it was a knife". Prosecutor Mark Fielding said Hollis had 'play-acted' as if he was being chased by the male victim with a knife and ran into the house "squealing, almost crying" and shouting he was being followed.
The court heard the said knife measured a foot to a foot-and-a-half in length. Hollis told the operator his neighbour used words like "fraggle". "I had a previous relationship with a man," said Hollis. "He used the word 'fraggle' a couple of times. He said I have a gay friend."
Police responded with "blue lights" after 'the man with a knife call'. One of the officers was Taser trained. Mr Golding could have been arrested and marched to a police car and taken away. But his wife's footage of what really happened exposed the lie.
Hollis was also pictured on a CCTV camera physically pushing a caravan, which Mr Golding said had been "plonked right outside our home" next to a full parking space. Hollis had called his grandfather to give evidence to explain why the caravan was parked at his home for 24 hours. Judge Pyle said the van could have left elsewhere on that driveway.
"At the time the professional and personal merged into one"
Hollis was helping the elderly, the vulnerable, people in need, and it was one his proudest times to be a councillor. Maybe the reality was he was more focused on helping other people than himself and behaved in a way that was not appropriate, he said. "At the time the professional and personal merged into one."
He was living with his now ex-partner and her children and returning home in the early hours to her in tears (over the neighbour problems) and he reacted in a way he normally would not. Looking back on what happened with the neighbours, he said: "They were clearly intending to push my buttons. When the fuse is short, the buttons were easily pushed.
"We have all matured and learnt a lot from this episode and must move past it now and move on. Caroline Henry (who was elected Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2021, and was caught speeding five times and who was fined by at the same court in July) has decided she is OK to stay on. I think it is only right I'm judged by the people who voted me in. I'm blessed by their support and thankful for it."
Girlfriend Hannah Denny, who lives with Hollis in Huthwaite, said he was "wonderful" and "we love our neighbours".
The second trial
By September 17 of 2020, Hollis was in trouble again. He was spotted driving in his newly-bought 68-plate Range Rover Evoque at more than 60 and 70mph in Outram Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, after a night with councillors and food bank workers at Apollo Bingo, Mansfield.
Hollis, who works in Highways, and has been campaigning for road and pavement funding, and to build more social housing, saved up and put cash towards the car with the remainder on finance.
He said of his trip to bingo: "I had a really nice time. It was a relatively unremarkable trip. The CCTV shows me driving home pretty normally."
After owning the car for just three months, he had been stopped by police on previous occasions for no apparent reason, the court had heard.
The area in which he drove had been modified with traffic calming measures, such as speed humps as high as kerbs, and mini roundabouts. But when asked about the suggestion that he was travelling along at double the speed limit, Hollis, of Yew Tree Drive, Huthwaite, had told his barrister, Errol Ballentyne: "Without being flippant, I don't accept it. If the car was travelling double the speed limit, it would have left the floor."
He said he did not think the "blue lights" on an unmarked police car "was meant for me" and was focusing on refuelling his car. When he reversed into the same police car at Asda Petrol Station in Priestsic Road, Sutton-in-Ashfield, it was an accident, he claimed.
The judge, Grace Leong, found he did drive carelessly; he was aware he was driving at excessive speeds, he knew there was a person refuelling at the petrol station, he failed to make proper checks when he reversed into the police car. Sentencing on all charges is on October 13.
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