A COUPLE who last month celebrated a stunning election victory in which they both won seats on Selby District Council have got out of an embarrassing legal fix - thanks to a High Court judge.

An administrative blunder landed Conservative councillors David and Kathleen McSherry in hot water for breaching strict election rules.

During their election campaign, which ended in victory for both of them in the May 1 poll, they put out a leaflet to 1,000 homes - but forgot to include the names and addresses of its printer and publisher.

This is an absolute requirement of the 1983 Representation of the People Act and breaching it can be punished by fines, or even jail.

But judge Mr Justice Gibbs yesterday lifted the threat of prosecution when he accepted the errors were "inadvertent" and there had been "no want of good faith" on their part.

The leaflet, entitled Election News, had been typed up by Mrs McSherry, 67, who had never stood in an election before. Her 64-year-old husband, a landscape gardener, acted as her election agent.

One thousand six hundred copies of the leaflet - which did not bear the obligatory "imprint" revealing the names and addresses of the printer and publisher - were run off and 1,000 of them were distributed around local homes before another candidate in the election spotted the error.

Mrs McSherry, a retired headmistress, shot round the area in a desperate attempt to get back the offending leaflets - but only managed to recover about 160, after being told by many householders that they had thrown their copy away with newspapers.

In their sworn statements to the court, Mr and Mrs McSherry said it had all been due to an "oversight" and "a genuine mistake", and their barrister Martyn Barklem told the judge no one had disputed that.

After a brief hearing, the judge ruled the error "arose from a mistake and inadvertance and not by reason of any want of good faith" and that no further action should be taken.

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, June 10, 2003