A former councillor claims she was left traumatised after being quizzed by police over the alleged breaking of election rules.

Anne Watts was subject to a formal complaint over a publicity leaflet she produced prior to local elections last month.

The former independent councillor for Belmont ward, in Guisborough, who lost her seat following the vote on May 4, was critical of borough councillors using their allowance to support Guisborough Town Council events, which she did not feel was appropriate.

She accepted the leaflet erroneously referred to two borough councillors as also being Guisborough town councillors and said she had apologised for this.

Fellow Belmont ward councillor, independent Peter Berry, who is understood to have made the complaint, claimed Ms Watts had “falsely inferred” in the leaflet that the seven other Guisborough-based borough councillors had misappropriated money from their council allowance.

The leaflet was reported to Redcar and Cleveland Council, which referred it to Cleveland Police.

The council said in the run-up to the election a total of five complaints had been received from candidates from across the borough in relation to election matters and had been referred onto police.

Ms Watts told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she was visited at her home by police officers who questioned her and described the force’s involvement as a waste of time.

Police subsequently took no action.

Ms Watts said: “Two non-uniformed police fraud squad officers turned up on my doorstep.

“They were very apologetic and took ages to come to the point, eventually suggesting I did not distribute the rest of my leaflets, although I told them they were all out.”

She alleged the incident had left her upset and “significantly affected” her mental health, and thereafter she did not leave the house, except for shopping, until the election count.

Ms Watts, who claimed she had been in a rush to write and deliver her election leaflets, felt she had been condemned as a “liar” in Facebook posts and her reputation had been “ruined”.

At the local elections her share of the vote declined significantly, leading to her exit from the council after eight years.

Despite this, she had received support from other council members across every party, she said.

Ms Watts added: “Their wonderful words made me realise how well I was appreciated on the council.”

Cllr Berry, who retained his seat in the election, said: “A paragraph on Ms Watts’ election leaflet falsely inferred that the other seven Guisborough councillors misappropriated money from their council allowance.

“This was reported to the council monitoring officer who took appropriate action. 

“I believe that this involved the police calling at Ms Watts’ house and telling her to stop delivering the offending leaflet.”

Cleveland Police confirmed there had been an incident relating to election literature in respect of Ms Watts.

It said she had been “reminded about the requirements and restrictions of information included in election material and the issue was resolved locally”.

Asked to comment, a council spokeswoman did not refer to Ms Watts directly, but explained the local authority’s approach to election-related complaints.

She said: “In some cases complaints can be resolved informally if a complainant has only a minor concern and does not wish to pursue matters further. 

“However, where complainants wish to pursue matters formally, complaints are always referred directly to the specified point of contact in the police who are responsible for investigating such matters and deciding on the appropriate action.  

“In this year’s elections, five complaints were referred to the police point of contact for consideration.”

Last month it emerged Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner, who stood as a candidate in the Redcar and Cleveland ward of Longbeck, had complained about election material to the council, which again triggered a police investigation, although again no action was taken.