A TOWN housing chief who is under investigation from the Audit Commission was defended by Bromsgrove District Council, this week.

Director of Housing Services, Dasvinder Singh, left his old job at Gloucester City Council with 'golden handcuffs' after taking a £48,000 secret pay-off and dropping an alleged claim of suffering two racist remarks.

The Audit Commission is investigating whether he had already been offered the job at Bromsgrove when he took the money and signed a paper to say he had no other employment.

Mr Singh left his job in Gloucester on September 27, 2002, while the minutes of the appointment's committee at Bromsgrove District Council on September 16, 2002, showed they resolved to offer Mr Singh the job.

In a statement to the Advertiser/Messenger, Bromsgrove District Council said: "Dasvinder Singh was appointed to the position with the council following a competitive interview and has no cause for concern about Dasvinder.

"The council has not and is not prepared to involve itself in speculation except to say that the speculation about his affairs does not reflect the high standards expected of employers in relation to matters concerning their employees and former employees."

It went on: "Dasvinder has an important job to do here and until the contrary is proved the presumption that he has conducted himself in a proper manner should prevail."

We contacted Mr Singh before we went to press last week, but he did not wish to comment.