A PORTLAND town councillor has hit out against allegations made against him on social media.

Rumours began to circulate online that Cllr Richard Denton-White had been arrested for stealing alcohol from a supermarket.

One Facebook post read: “Just heard Richard Denton-White caught stealing a bottle of alcohol from Co-op. Anyone else heard this?”

Cllr Denton-White told the Echo that there was ‘no truth’ in the accusation and criticised people who had used the internet to slur his reputation.

Dozens of people took to Facebook to comment on the post, which was later deleted.

Dorset Police confirmed that they couldn’t find any recent reports of anyone being arrested for stealing alcohol at the store in Easton Square.

It comes after Cllr Denton-White hit the headlines when the controversial proposal to hike the Portland council tax precept by 1,000 per cent was put forward at a town council meeting.

Councillors scrapped the controversial decision to increase the precept by 1,000 per cent amid an island revolt and voted on a new figure of 1.99 per cent.

Following the initial meeting about the precept, Cllr Denton-White made a public apology after he told the crowd to ‘shut up’ as he was heckled while explaining that the extra money from the precept could pay for services such as the island caretaker.

At a later meeting, he walked out amid shouts for him to leave.

He believes that this accusation is an attempt to ‘fix him up’ following the tax drama.

He said: “There is absolutely no truth in this allegation.

“This is an unspeakable nastiness that someone has fabricated to fix me up and I suspect it is to do with the nasty proceedings which followed the issue of the council tax precept.”

He added: “I have got no criminal record. Why would a man who is a Portland town councillor, a professional teacher and who has just retired from the prison service on the island want to go into a local supermarket and steal a bottle of whisky?

“I’ve just returned from the Western Highlands in Scotland with three bottles of Scotch.”

He added: “Facebook is an open sewer and the stench of the lies that are falsely spread on social media can ruin innocent people’s lives. If I ever find out who made this allegation against me I will throw the legal book at them. It is character assassination.”

He added that his 16-year-old daughter had been left ‘upset’ by the allegation.