A DUP councillor and former election agent whose mobile phones were seized by the PSNI are members of a local policing partnership, it has emerged.
It is understood devices belonging to Causeway Coast and Glens councillor George Duddy and his former election agent Leanne Abernethy were taken by detectives last week.
A third mobile phone has also been seized.
In a statement, a PSNI spokesman said that as part of an "ongoing investigation detectives seized mobile phones from three individuals" in the Ballymoney, Coleraine and Derry areas on Thursday and Friday of last week.
Police have yet to provide any further details about the nature of the probe.
However, Independent councillor Padraig McShane has claimed the investigation is linked to funding at Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
The councillor last night claimed that he has requested a copy of a report produced by an outside body linked to funding at the council.
"This report should be made available to view immediately," he said.
The Irish News put a series of questions to Causeway Coast and Glens council but a spokeswoman said: "we will not be commenting on this matter".
It has now emerged that both Mr Duddy and Ms Abernethy are members of the Causeway Coast and Glens Policing and Community Safety Partnership.
On its website the PCSP said it aims to make the community safer and focuses "on the policing and community safety issues that matter most" across the district.
A spokeswoman for the Policing Board made no comment when contacted.
A former mayor in Coleraine, Mr Duddy was suspended from the council for three months in 2018 after an investigation by the Local Government Commissioner for Standards for attempting to circumvent rules on disclosure and declaration of interests in what was found to be a "serious breach" of the local government code of conduct.
In 2015 the former Orange Order district master in Coleraine criticised the failed unionist "graduated response" to Parades Commission restrictions on a Twelfth march through the nationalist Ardoyne area of north Belfast.
Last year he was critical of the PSNI after officers asked unionists in Coleraine who were attaching a bannerette to a lamppost if they had the required paperwork from the Department for Infrastructure.
In an interview last year Ms Abernethy said that she put her name forward for the 2019 local government elections but "was not picked".
She said however she had been the election agent for Mr Duddy.
The DUP was contacted but did not respond.