Cambridgeshire Reform councillor to be disqualified for publishing lie about Tory candidate
Andy Osborn was found guilty of publishing a damaging false allegation against Conservative candidate
Last updated 15th Apr 2026
A Reform UK councillor is set to be disqualified from office after being found guilty of breaking election law by publishing a damning lie about a Conservative candidate in the run-up to a local election.
Andy Osborn, 74, was chairman of the North East Cambridgeshire Reform Party in April 2025 when he made Samantha Hoy a “target with anger” because he was he was “furious” that she had suggested he was a racist.
The prosecution said the post – claiming “Samantha Hoy worked in the care industry but allegedly was sacked for fraud no wonder Wisbech is in such a state. Reform UK will fix it” – appeared on a North East Cambridgeshire Reform UK discussion forum on Facebook on April 25, days before the election.
District judge Nina Tempia, sitting at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, dismissed Osborn’s claim that his account been hacked and found him guilty of making or publishing a false statement, in a case brought under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
The conviction means that Osborn, who was elected as a councillor for Roman Bank and Peckover in the May 2025 poll, must vacate his seat and there will have to be a by-election which “will cause a cost on the public purse to replace him”, prosecutor Thomas Coke-Smythe said.
Osborn, of March, Cambridgeshire, was ordered to pay £1,800, comprising a £1,000 fine, £400 costs and a £400 surcharge.
The retired Army veteran, who had been an aerospace engineer, said he would make the payments from his £1,100-a-month state pension.
Rather than take the offending post down, Osborn cast suspicion on two other people: a neighbour who does not like him and an online troll.
The judge told Osborn, who leant on a walking still as he sat quietly in front of the dock, she did not believe he had been hacked, adding that “no one else would have known why she (Ms Hoy) had suggested he had called him a racist”.
She added that Osborn had tried blame two people as potential suspects for hacking his account and that he may have written something in a notebook about the incident.
The judge said the explanation was “nonsense”.
After sentencing, Ms Hoy said: “I am just pleased that justice has been served. People should run for elections fairly and squarely. They should not tell lies about people.
“The idea he had been hacked was nonsense.
“He was just doing it for retaliation because he felt that he was called a racist in a private setting – that does not give him the right to break the law.”
The court had earlier heard that the allegation stemmed from incidents in the build-up to the election which included a dispute involving Reform UK campaigners including Osborn, who was alleged to have told the black mayor of Wisbech, Sidney Imafidon, to “speak English”.
Police were called to the incident on April 11 at Wisbech marketplace.
The court heard that questions were raised over whether Reform UK had a licence for a stall and if it was being used for political purposes. Mr Imafidon asked them to move.
Osborn, who has hearing problems, said he only asked Mr Imafidon to “speak clearly”.
Ms Hoy, a councillor for Wisbech South, said Osborn started an “argument unnecessarily” and “poked” her colleague Steve Tierney in the shoulder at a postal vote count on April 25.
Giving evidence on Wednesday she said she told Osborn it was “interesting that your hearing is working” at the count but not at the marketplace.
Ms Hoy said he “got quite angry, said I was calling him racist and we both walked off”, describing the scene as “quite embarrassing, really, when you are in a room full of people”.
The offending message appeared online later that day.
Ms Hoy, who works in the care industry and has never been sacked or faced fraud allegations, later responded online describing the claims as “an absolute lie and extremely defamatory and damaging”.
She reported the matter to police and took screenshots of messages from the account in Osborn’s name. One message said: “I have taken a lot of slander in reference to me being a racist, I have family who are black and I am proud of them.”
Ms Hoy told the court the messages were publicly viewable for “months rather than weeks” but she never received an apology.
During his evidence, Osborn said he was “struggling to hear because of the background noise” in the marketplace and denied telling Mr Imafidon to “speak English” but asked him to “speak clearly”.
Osborn said Ms Hoy told him at the opening of the postal count: “Oh, you can hear now there is not a black man in the room.”
He said he was “offended” by her comment but did not react, and told the court: “I am not a racist. I do not judge anybody by their skin colour.”
Osborn said there was “not any form of aggression or shouting” and he only “touched” Mr Tierney on the shoulder.
Earlier Mia Gibson, defending Osborn, told Ms Hoy: “I’m going to suggest you have brought these proceedings against Mr Osborn to disparage him and his party.”
Ms Hoy replied: “No, why would I put myself through this for that?”