A second candidate failed to disclose that he was not eligible to stand in last year’s Police and Crime Commissioner election, we can exclusively reveal.

Graham ‘Brig’ Oubridge, the Green Party candidate, was sentenced to serve three days in Swansea Prison for his “wilful refusal” to pay road vehicle back tax for a car he had parked off-road for a year.

The offence happened 28 years ago when Mr Oubridge, now aged 70, was spotted by a traffic warden driving his son to school in the vehicle without a valid road tax disc.

He admitted the offence in court and was fined. He paid a month’s back tax to cover the day when his car was illegally on the road.

“But I couldn’t bring myself to pay for the rest of the year in which it had been lawfully parked up on my field,” he said.

Mr Oubridge said the Welsh court clerk defined his action as a ‘wilful refusal’ to pay the back tax and demanded he be sent to jail. Magistrates committed him to Swansea Prison for the minimum of three days.

The Government later introduced SORN regulations so that no-one else would find themselves in a similar situation.

But Mr Oubridge says he neglected to mention his jail sentence when he sent in his nomination papers for the PCC election last May 6.

He gained 16,606 votes in the election, which was won by Conservative candidate Jonathon Seed, of Chittoe Heath, Bromham, with a combined total of 47 per cent of the vote.

Mr Oubridge said: “I still do not know for sure if my ‘wilful refusal’ constitutes an ‘imprisonable offence’ which would have disqualified me from being a PCC but the idea that it might did not occur to me when I signed the nomination forms.

“When I signed those forms it was my genuine belief that I was not in any way disqualified, and although I may have been mistaken, if so it was a genuine mistake.”

Mr Oubridge contacted Wiltshire Council after becoming aware that Conservative candidate Jonathon Seed had withdrawn on the evening of Sunday, May 9 before the election result was announced the following day.

In the interval between the vote and the count, ITV News revealed that Mr Seed had been convicted in 1993 of a drink-driving offence in 1992. It was later discovered by ITV News that Mr Seed had a second offence of failure to stop.

These convictions disqualified Mr Seed from the role of Police and Crime Commissioner, as guidance published by the Electoral Commission says PCC candidates cannot seek election if they have been convicted of an offence punishable with a prison sentence, including spent convictions and those where a prison sentence was not given.

After the failed PCC election, another election was held on August 19 last year with Conservative candidate Philip Wilkinson taking up the post. The estimated cost of the election was over £1 million but Mr Oubridge did not stand in the re-run.

Mr Seed, 63, is due to stand trial at Oxford Crown Court on July 18 for allegedly making a false declaration in his nomination papers. He has denied the charge.

Mr Oubridge said he had failed to appreciate the disqualification criteria for PCC elections were “considerably tighter” than for parliamentary or local council elections.

He added: “I have been a candidate in numerous elections over the past 40 years, including several parliamentary elections and one for the Welsh Assembly. I didn’t imagine there was any reason why I would be disqualified from taking part in this one.”

Mr Oubridge said that the official confirmation of his selection as the Green Party candidate arrived “very late in the day” so then he had a very short time left in which to submit his nomination papers.

“I therefore signed the papers with only a brief cursory look at the guidance notes, on the incorrect assumption that the disqualification criteria would be broadly similar.”

After he found out that he might be in a similar situation to Mr Seed, he informed the Salisbury Green Party Election Committee and hurriedly sought legal advice.

“Although we have still not been able to consult a properly qualified legal opinion, and are therefore still not 100 per cent certain of the position, it does appear very likely that although my original offence of having no valid tax disc was not an imprisonable offence, my later refusal to pay the back tax penalty probably was,” he said.

Mr Oubridge offered to make a formal statement to Thames Valley Police who later conducted an independent investigation into Mr Seed’s actions.

He also said: “I would also like to apologise unreservedly to you for whatever mistakes I may have made in this regard.

“I am merely thankful that the voting figures were such that my mistake (if that is indeed what it was) did not have any material effect on the outcome of the election.”

Thames Valley Police have yet to comment. Mr Oubridge has not been charged with any offence in relation to the PCC election.

Wiltshire Council has declined to comment on the issue.