One of two councillors expelled from Labour over alleged election malpractice won a payout from the University of Brighton last year.
Bharti Gajjar has rejoined Brighton Medical School as a second year student after taking it to the High Court.
Cllr Gajjar and her daughter Chandni Mistry were thrown out of Labour last year over allegations Cllr Mistry had lied about where she lived on electoral papers. The matter is currently under police investigation.
Bharti started her first year at the University of Brighton in October 2018, repeating it in 2019.
A student who also started in 2019 said she subsequently left the course.
They said: “We were all very surprised to see her in our postbox running for Labour.”
Meanwhile, she lodged a judicial review against the University of Brighton, which runs the medical school with the University of Sussex, at the King’s Bench Division of the High Court.
The High Court confirmed to Brighton and Hove News the case, which had a reference number suggesting it was lodged in 2023, had been transferred to a county court.
Judicial reviews are typically brought against decisions made by public bodies, including universities. It is not clear which decision was being challenged, or on what grounds the case was brought.
This month, the University of Brighton said it had been settled.
In October 2023, Bharti, who by this time was Cllr Gajjar, again started attending Brighton Medical School, rejoining the second year.
Cllr Gajjar, via her lawyers at Bindmans Solicitors, said: “Like many people, I found intensive university studies during COVID challenging, especially when combined with other health issues.
“This was a private matter between me and my university, but I am glad that it has now been resolved by agreement.”
Cllr Mistry, via her lawyer Abbas Lakha KC, said: “Any suggestion of involvement in fraudulent activity is denied. The suggestion is untrue, unsubstantiated and offensive. Our client has worked hard for the benefit of the community both before and after her election.”
Meanwhile Cllr Gajjar and her son Brijesh and daughter and fellow councillor Chandni Mistry are due to appear at a court in India tomorrow charged with domestic violence, and specifically marriage fraud.
The allegations include claims that Brijesh falsely posed as a Cambridge graduate and qualified doctor before his marriage to an Indian national.
Both councillors have failed to turn up to any meetings since they were first suspended from Labour, save one full council meeting earlier this month which they left after an hour, and before the main business had commenced.
Cllr Mistry is studying medicine at Lancaster University, which features her in a picture on its medical school webpage.
After the councillors were first suspended by the Labour party, it came to light Cllr Gajjar had previously been sacked from British Gas for fraud, having taken a job at the University of Warwick while claiming to be caring for a relative.
She took British Gas to court claiming disability discrimination because of a variety of conditions – chronic back pain, low back pain, frozen shoulder, dizziness and diabetes.
In a preliminary hearing, a judge ruled: “I am satisfied that there is no reasonable prospect of the disability discrimination complaint getting off the ground. The claimant’s narrative as to what she is complaining about tends to shift from one moment to the next.”
Shameless grifter.
why was my comment saying the same deleted!
I fail to see what this judicial review or related settlement has to do with the other issues this councillor faces, and since the nature of the settlement is confidential I am not entirely sure what the story is here.
Both candidates imposed by New New Labour HQ over the heads of local party members on our city. You can’t trust new new labour.
Only because the local party had been infiltrated and then taken over by the likes of Platts and her Corbyn cronies. The Regional Office took control to make sure there was no repeat of the shambles under Platts and Monentum. Then the regional apparatchiks got fooled by these two fly-by-night operators. But let’s put the original blame for this mess where it deserves to be – with the disastrous failed experiment of Corbynism.
Meanwhile Cllr Gajjar and her son Brijesh and daughter and fellow councillor Chandni Mistry are due to appear at a court in India tomorrow charged with domestic violence, and specifically marriage fraud.
Errm what????
Oh yeah, there’s loads going on with this family. All related to dishonesty, interestingly…
Very sadly, this does rather bring into question the integrity of the modern labour party as a whole. I do not believe that persons brought in from outside of the area should be standing for election as councillors. It seems extraordinary that the Labour Party selected these particular people given all of their attached historical and current ‘baggage’. It does not inspire confidence.
I think Labour were lied to. As much as due diligence is a fantastic thing to say in hindsight, and I imagine they will be extremely careful from now on, they aren’t infallible. Whoever comes next will need to be more transparent and open to a much greater level of scrutiny than anyone else before them because of what Gajjar has selfishly done.
Let’s be very clear here. The problem is that Gajjar lied to the residents of Brighton & specifically Kemptown. Let us never lose sight of that.
Is this the parachuted Leicester lady Councillor with the Yale degree in Ethics who went on to a stellar career as a British Gas advisor for 17 years before leaving under a cloud of alleged fraud? Now accused with her Councillor daughter of marriage fraud in India while dabbling in medicine. Will her daughter ever win Young Councillor of the Year? These two are better than EastEnders.
Well parachuted, Labour. Great entertainment value.
Mad, isn’t it, Barry. Either way, I’m a firm believer in justice and karma. Her time will come, most certainly. I’m just upset that in the meanwhile, other Ward Councillors are having to cover for her absence at the expense of their own workloads. Until she is ejected in disgrace or does the right thing and leave, residents of Kemptown have a much-weakened representation.
Well, Cllr Gajjar clearly has no compunction about using our courts /legal system for her own ends (and how does she or her daughter afford London solicitors and a KC when neither of them has any declared employment or much else the register of councillors’ interests (their previous vastly impressive declarations having been removed as they were presumably false, and Gajjar’s Leicester educational companies are in debt?). Perhaps some sort of justice might be served up in an Indian court if either of them bother sto turn up.
I make no comment about Mistry but Gajjar fought tooth and nail over the British Gas business and got found out big-time. Pity that BG didn’t choose to prosecute for fraud. and spare us this total charade.
The question for Bindmans and the KC is – do you think your bill will ever get paid??
I think “Never Piss Off Your Lawyer” applies universally, here.
PS: In Kemptown we have only one councillor, who isn’t all that visible himself, when there should be two. Gajjar has shown so signs whatever of even attempting to represent KT residents, as evidenced by the highly cynical and very brief appearance at a recent council meeting, just to stay in office (joke) for another 6 months and collect the allowances. Why? As I said, she may very well be short of money, so who pays the legal bill??
You couldn’t make this up but the Labour Party and those who supported/ signed up to her candidacy have a lot to answer for. It’s all very well for LRM to discover too late down the line that there were signs of irregularity etc and to make a report to the police (who have yet to make any utterance whatsoever), but he did promote Gajjar initially and apparently was an ‘assentor’ to her candidacy, so perhaps he might like to make some comment about how he was taken in and endorsed Gajjar in the first place. Fortunately, my conscience is clear and I wasn’t impressed by this woman’s blurb or credentials at all, so would never have considered voting for her – and didn’t – but enough Labour supporters voted for her to get her elected and this is the result. Hope they’re proud of themselves.
I agree and to try and support residents I’ve been asking anyone with issues I can help with to contact me via kemptown@liberalbrightin.org
New Labour,
Hmm,
More stitch ups than the Bayeux Tapestry.
How can Mistry be a medical student in Lancaster (a mere 300 miles away) and be an active Brighton councillor? How was she ever accepted as a candidate?
How did former British Gas customer service adviser Gajjar (sacked for alleged fraud) get a coveted place to study medicine in Brighton presumably as a mature student? She is in her mid 50s at least.
So many questions.
They do seem to be hard workers .All the judicial reviews, court cases, multiple jobs and full-time study.
Maybe Labour should give them a second chance
How does this 60 year old manage being a mum in India, councillor in Brighton, while living in Leicester, studying medicine in Brighton, with broken emails? Hahhahah grifter supreme.
People that screw the system for public money without any intention of giving back or fulfilling their obligations to the public are despicable.
These two councillors are now known to everyone, and I hope that the public remember their names and treat them appropriately in everything they do and ask for. They cannot be trusted at all, with anything. If they ever ask for my professional services, they will be refused and I hope everyone else does the same.
I honestly believe she won’t get anywhere with medical school because of this. When her fraudulent behaviour is proven, it will leave a mark that will mean no professional board will consider registering her, meaning you can’t practice. Once you are marked as a con-artist, that will stay with you your entire life.
Unless your professional services are taxidermy, Miles Monty, in which case I’d be very happy to pay you myself!
I will try my hand at anything
Gajjar is so incredibly stupid for doing all this.
She may complete her medical course, but considering her current legal challenge for fraudulent behaviour, she’ll never be allowed to practice to register for a professional board. Honesty and candour are cornerstones of medical professions. Gajjar has provided constant evidence of her lack of engagement with the community. I hope people step forward and evidence of this willful neglect of her duties.
Effectively kicked before you even start, making her time at university, ultimately pointless. The only reasonable thing she could have done was to step away quietly, but she seems to insist on filibustering the council. What a pathetic display. Truly shameful.
It’s funny Jo. The wiki page you posted of Cllr Mistry is repeatedly being updated. Seems someone really does not want that their truth should be shown to the world. Great PR and great entertainment.