Theft Category

Council theft may be inside job yet no suspects found

INVESTIGATIONS into the mysterious theft of nearly £1,500 from Harrow Civic Centre – which auditors said had an ‘indication of staff involvement’ – have failed to uncover a suspect. Harrow Council had fought to keep the report into the incident confidential, but the Information Commissioner’s Office backed the Observer’s Freedom of Information request and ordered [...]

Three jailed over £1.3m adult learning contracts scam

Three people have been jailed over an adult learning skills contracts scam in Shropshire. Paul Kent, 46, of Telford, admitted receiving about £300,000 in kickbacks from Learning Skills Council contracts worth £1.3m, which he granted to his co-defendants. He was jailed for four and a half years at Birmingham Crown Court. Silinder Singh Sidhu, of [...]

Rossendales, Local Authority And LGO

I’ll try to keep this short. I’ve had to deal with North East Lincolnshire Council and their bailiffs Rosendales over council tax. It has been going on for well over a year due to the FARCE, which is the formal complaints procedure with both the council and later the Local Government Ombudsman. Calling in the [...]

Bristol Parking Meter Repair Man Jailed Over Cash Theft

A parking meter repairer who pocketed £70,000 from machines he worked on has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Arthur Blay, of Blackwood, Caerphilly, operated the scam from 2002 to 2008 while employed by Bristol City Council. The 48-year-old was caught when investigators marked coins with a liquid which is only visible under ultra-violet light. His [...]

4 Council employees cautioned for money theft

After a theft of £1400 from a council run scheme, police cautioned four Peterborough City Council employees. Three employees have since resigned. Following an internal investigation by the Council which discovered £1400 from the sale of scrap metal from the Council’s disabled work scheme located in premises in Royce Road, Eastfield, Peterborough had not been [...]

Rossendales bailiff stole money from lady pensioner

Whilst in his official capacity as a bailiff in the collection of Council Tax debt on behalf of a local authority, Peter Walsh stole over £20K from a lady in her 80’s after befriending her. In the summer of 2006, Walsh, who was employed by Rossendales, made a first visit to the pensioner’s home in [...]

Council Officer stole disabled parking permit for free parking

A blue badge parking permit was stolen by a Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council Officer who then fraudulently used the badge to obtain free car parking. The badge was originally returned to the Council after the user, a disabled person, died.  However, Choudhury Mohammed Shahran abused his position at the Council’s customer services department by stealing [...]

Council Officer stole taxpayers money

A Council Officer pleaded guilty at Magistrates Court to charges of theft of more that £13,000 of Council Taxpayers money. Abigail Clement, 31, from Middle St George near Darlington, processed 125 counterfeit transactions to obtain the money whilst working in Darlington Borough Council’s Public Protection Division. After the Council discovered irregular transactions, Clement resigned after [...]