A TOWN housing chief, who was given a secret £48,000 pay-off from his last job, is being investigated by the Audit Commission after allegedly lying about his employment in Bromsgrove.

Dasvinder Singh, now the head of housing services at Bromsgrove District Council, left his old job at Gloucester City Council with a 'golden handcuffs' deal after dropping an alleged claim of suffering two racist remarks.

It is believed that he was given the pay-off and signed a paper to say that he had not been offered other employment.

But now it is alleged that Mr Singh had already been offered the job of head of housing at Bromsgrove when he signed and Gloucester City Council has called in the Audit Commission to investigate.

Bromsgrove District Council cannot disclose the date when they offered Mr Singh employment due to the Data Protection Act.

But Mr Singh's employment at Gloucester City Council was terminated on September 27, 2002. While the minutes of a meeting of Bromsgrove's appointments committee on September 16, 2002, show that: "Consideration was given to the appointment to the post of director of housing services. The committee interviewed a number of candidates for the post. Resolved: That the post be offered to Dasvinder Singh."

The housing chief received the £48,000 pay-off from the housing revenue account of Gloucester City Council. Money which is normally used to pay for repairs and refurbishment of council properties. Mr Singh is understood to have resigned after striking the deal with the authority which stopped him taking the council to a tribunal over the termination of his employment. Mr Singh was contacted by the Advertiser/Messenger but did not wish to comment.