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No further Heed investigation

No 'new' overspending information

B.C.'S chief electoral officer has said he will not reopen an investigation into allegations of campaign spending irregularities by former solicitor general Kash Heed.

Keith Archer, the chief electoral officer, issued a statement Thursday saying he has reviewed requests to reopen the case in light of allegations made last month by Heed's former campaign manager Barinder Sall and concluded there's no new information.

"Consequently this is no basis for carrying out a further investigation by this office," said Archer in the statement.

Leonard Krog, NDP critic for attorney general, and candidate Gabriel Yu, who ran against Heed in the Vancouver Fraser view riding in the 2009 election, asked that the case be reopened Oct. 31 after Sall claimed in interviews Heed's election overspending was closer to $40,000 than the $5,000 Heed had admitted to in court.

Heed was chief constable of the West Vancouver Police Department for 18 months before resigning in March 2009 to enter provincial politics.

In September, Heed was fined $11,000 for violating the Elections Act.

Heed argued in court that he acted in good faith, relying heavily on campaign staff members such as Sall to file paperwork - including accounting - properly.

Last month, Sall was fined $15,000 after pleading guilty to campaign overspending and misleading election investigators.

But following his sentencing on Friday, Sall told reporters he didn't act alone in any of the political dirty tricks and released emails pointing to Heed's political ambitions while he was still in charge of the West Vancouver police force.

Sall told Province columnist Mike Smyth that while he was police chief, Heed had a special phone with a secret number in his West Vancouver office that he referred to as the "Bat phone" on which he took political calls.

Material released in January from an RCMP search warrant application had already pointed to Heed's active courting of a political run during his tenure as police chief as well as his close relationship with Sall, who was involved in opening doors for Heed to enter the political arena.

In one of those emails, Heed infamously referred to himself as a "stallion" who was chomping at the bit to get into the political horse race.

jseyd@nsnews.com