A COUNCIL land deal which saw controversial Wrexham FC owner Alex Hamilton make £2.4m in a matter of months was under investigation last night.

Flintshire council's audit committee will be presented with a report by monitoring officer Barry Davies on March 22. It looks at the sale of the local authority's former depot at the Tesco roundabout at Ponterwyl, Mold.

Cheshire-based property developer Mr Hamilton, sole owner of Court-ford Ltd, bought the prime plot of land on the outskirts of Mold town centre from Flintshire County Council for just £650,000.

He also bought the adjoining former Arriva bus depot for a further £450,000.

Within months of obtaining out-line planning permission Courtford Ltd sold the land on to Homebase for £3.5m.

Councillors demanded to know how such a profit went to Mr Hamilton rather than directly to the cash-strapped council which was recently forced to introduce a budget axing 101 jobs due to a £6m shortfall.

There is no suggestion Mr Hamilton acted improperly and the report will centre on the council's handling of the deal.

A Flintshire County Council spokeswoman said the authority got above the market valuation for the land after receiving advice from the District Valuer.

Paperwork reveals that on February 15 2003 Courtford Ltd entered into a conditional contract with the council.

It made clear Mr Hamilton's firm would only pay the asking price if he got outline planning permission for the land.

It was also conditional on letting the site to a large retail development. He put down a 5% deposit, £32,000.

An internal e-mail from a council estates officer named Peter Rice raised concerns about the deal.

In October 2004 Mr Hamilton wanted to extend the conditional contract which effectively locked out other bidders.

Mr Rice's e-mail reveals: "There is another party interested in a residential development and as this is at a higher figure we need to consider the respective merits and I am not inclined to agree an automatic extension."

For some reason Mr Rice was over-ruled and the deal went through in spring 2005.

The land was sold to Mr Hamilton with a written guarantee that it would increase dramatically in value. It trebled in value in a matter of months.

When asked about the dramatic variation in the value of the land the council spokeswoman said: "In the circumstances the council has no comment to make about the value of the land."

Some opposition councillors forced an internal investigation by the council's monitoring officer, Barry Davies.

That was passed on to external auditors PricewaterhouseCooper for comment. The report will go before the audit committee on March 22.

Flintshire audit committee vice chairman Councillor Colin Bithell said last night: "A lot of people complained to me saying this seemed to be an excessive amount of profit.

"The complaints I have received I have passed on to the monitoring officer and his report will be considered on March 22.

"Some of the complaints came from ordinary members of the public, others from the community council.

"It has been sent to the audit committee because there are implications about the need to sell land and for the authority to get the maximum amount.

"I have expressed a wish that this item should be dealt with in public."

* Homebase already has outline planning permission for their 25,000 sq ft store which will create 50 full and part-time jobs.