Theft Tag

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 [...]

The Great Inertia Sector: A whistleblower’s account of council work where staff pull six-month sickies

In his emergency Budget this week, Chancellor George Osborne announced he was cutting public sector expenditure by 25 per cent. Unions have declared the cuts irresponsible. But are they? Here, one employee for a large inner London authority lifts the lid on the culture of inertia and incompetence at his workplace. The Mail knows the [...]

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 [...]

Barnet Council Loses USB Storage Device Containing Sensitive Data

The Barnet Council has reported that it has lost records of almost 9,000 school children residing in the Borough, following a burglary at the home of a council employee, who had downloaded the sensitive data on an unencrypted USB stick without the knowledge of the superiors. According to a statement released by the council, the [...]

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 [...]

Council social worker struck off for threat and dishonesty

A former Birmingham City Council employee has been struck off following accusations of covering up theft and fraud and for threatening her landlord’s children. Verona Reeves, 48, was alleged to have said to her landlord and his wife, “I know where you live and where your kids go to school and they better watch out.” [...]

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 [...]