Wyndham City Mayor Preet Singh has resigned after months of public pressure, council unrest and political attacks arising from a character reference he wrote for a man later convicted of sexual offences.

Cr Singh announced his resignation in a video statement, saying he had made the decision voluntarily and believed the prolonged controversy was preventing Wyndham City Council from concentrating on residents and essential local issues.

Cr Singh said,

“This is my decision, made on my own terms.”

While acknowledging that the original character reference was an error of judgment, Cr Singh said legitimate scrutiny had developed into what he described as a sustained campaign of intimidation, threats and harassment directed not only at him but also at members of his family.

He said his resignation should not be interpreted as a withdrawal from community life or an admission that every accusation made against him had been fair.

He said, indicating he intends to remain a councillor and continue representing Wyndham residents,

“I’m not stepping away from public service.”

The resignation ends a bitter mayoral stand-off that began only days after Cr Singh was elected mayor on March 23.

Councillors had chosen him to lead Wyndham until November 2026 after the mayoral position became vacant. He had first been elected to the council in November 2024 and later served as deputy mayor.

The dispute erupted after it became public that Cr Singh had provided a character reference for Kashyap Patel, who was convicted in 2024 of grooming and sexually assaulting.

The reference was written in April 2024, before Cr Singh was elected to Wyndham City Council. It reportedly expressed continued trust in Patel and suggested the conduct was out of character.

Cr Singh subsequently acknowledged that writing the reference had raised serious questions about his judgment. He apologised to the victim, her family and the wider Wyndham community, saying he had not intended to minimise the harm caused by the offences.

However, his apologies did not end the political crisis.

On April 1, the other 10 Wyndham councillors issued a joint statement calling for his resignation as mayor, declaring that he was no longer fit to hold the position.

Cr Singh initially stepped aside from his mayoral duties but did not resign. His fellow councillors then wrote to Victoria’s local government minister asking the state government to begin a process that could lead to his removal.

He returned to his duties on April 23, saying he had accepted responsibility for writing the reference but would not allow a politically motivated campaign to force him from office.

At that time, Cr Singh described the backlash as a “sustained campaign” conducted through social media and said his family had suffered profound harm from threats and abuse.

Community campaigners rejected his argument and maintained that the dispute concerned judgment, accountability and public confidence rather than his cultural background or political associations.

Days later, councillors unanimously passed a non-binding motion of no confidence in Cr Singh and repeated their call for him to resign.

The motion could not legally remove him from the mayoralty, but it left him leading a council in which every other elected representative had publicly withdrawn confidence in him.

The controversy also led to demonstrations outside council meetings, with more than 100 people attending one protest and further rallies organised by residents calling for Cr Singh’s removal.

Federal and state political figures also entered the dispute.

Federal Labor MPs Joanne Ryan and John Lister called on Cr Singh to resign, while Ms Ryan rejected his claim that the campaign against him was politically motivated.

She argued the issue was the seriousness of the offending and the judgment involved in providing the reference, rather than Cr Singh’s political affiliations or cultural identity.

The Victorian government later appointed municipal monitors Jo-Anne Mazzeo and Jim Gifford to Wyndham City Council amid concerns about governance, strained relationships between councillors and declining community confidence.

The wider fallout also contributed to the resignation of councillor Jennie Barrera, who said the situation at the council had made her role untenable. Her departure triggered a council by-election.

In his latest video, Cr Singh again accepted responsibility for the original decision to provide the character reference. However, he drew a distinction between accountability for that decision and the months of hostility that followed.

He said criticism had gone beyond disagreement over his conduct and had become personal, threatening and damaging to those closest to him.

Cr Singh indicated that he had resisted earlier calls to resign because he did not believe elected representatives should be forced from office through intimidation or political pressure.

He also argued that public standards must be applied consistently and that the circumstances surrounding a person’s actions should not be discarded simply because a controversy has become politically charged.

However, he said continuing as mayor was no longer in the best interests of Wyndham because the council needed to return its attention to local services, community priorities and advocacy ahead of the Victorian election.

His resignation is from the mayoralty rather than the council itself.

Under Victoria’s Local Government Act, the office of mayor becomes vacant when a written resignation is delivered to the council’s chief executive. Councillors must elect a replacement mayor within one month, with the new mayor serving the remainder of the existing term.

Cr Singh and his supporters are likely to see it differently: as the culmination of a prolonged campaign that moved beyond accountability and became an attempt to destroy his reputation and force him from public life.

The video also makes clear that Cr Singh does not intend to disappear from local politics.

He thanked residents who had sent messages of support and expressed gratitude to his family for standing beside him throughout the controversy.

“Thank you for everything,” he said.

His resignation brings his brief and deeply contested mayoralty to an end.

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