Shortly after posting yesterday's piece which looked at how the top brass in County Hall have got away scot-free with unlawful actions and blatant dishonesty that have cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, news arrived of a case in which Carmarthenshire County Council and the legal system threw the book at a school caretaker.
The caretaker was accused of the heinous crimes of stealing loo paper and sawdust, and was suspended on full pay for two years while the wheels of justice ground slowly on.
He was eventually found not guilty in the Crown Court a couple of weeks ago.
9 comments:
And what were the legal costs here?
It is truly shocking how certain officers are seemingly getting away scot free when they have been found to be dishonest and remain in their jobs. I for one have proof that a certain officer has blatantly lied about myself when needing to cover over the cracks in his own failings. The Welsh Assembly know it as they were informed about it long ago. The Ombudsman too knew about it and actually said that 'officers took views they had no right to take and influenced other agencies'. It amounts to libel but unlike Mark James who unlawfully dipped into the public purse to sue on defamation, I do not have such a pot of gold to do likewise with, therefore could not afford to sue! The consequence is that these officers who are proven to be dishonest remain in their jobs. The most shameful of all is that on account of such dishonest conduct, immeasurable long term suffering both mentally and financially can become the result and as a consequence can ruin innocent lives. The Welsh Assembly should be ashamed! How many others have had to suffer in the way we have through blatant dishonesty?
A Public Inquiry is long long overdue in the planning section of this council alone!
It would have been the police and CPS who decided, once the CCC had notified them of this dastardly crime, it was in the public interest and that there was a good chance of obtaining a guilty verdict.
I would like to think that misconduct in public office caused when officers of a council fail to follow procedures when criminal action against a service user is disclosed to them is a matter of public interest. A refusal to follow statutory procedure when their lack of action (safeguarding) is disclosed is a matter of public interest. Without investigating lessons will not be learnt. Are the police and CPS interested in investigating matters where the vulnerable have been harmed by bodies whose duty it is to safeguard them? To my mind that matter would be more in the public interest and of more importance than the case you have described. Hopefully starting to hold public servants to account for failing in their duty to safeguard the service users in their care would force them to actually follow procedures and learn lessons.
Regulators and ombudsmen do not frighten this public body as no lessons are learnt. The ease in which they persuaded the police to charge that employee contrasts with the difficulty it is to persuade the police to investigate misconduct in public office when service users rights to be safeguarded are ignored by LA officers.
Jennifer Brown (whistleblower)
The planning section has been a farce for years.
The Welsh Assembly is dominated by Labour,they
don't care about West Wales,they don't know what shame is.
I agree with Jennifer Brown's last comment. The Welsh Assembly advised me that 'misconduct in public office' is a criminal offence therefore they will not get involved - it rests with the person who is the victim of such dishonesty to apparently report it to the police. I have tried, but where you have a cosy relationship between council and police with zero support from any other source, the criminality - that's what it is - continues with impunity. Shocking!
Humph. Well I'd be pretty cross to be stuck in the toilet and nothing to wipe my botty on as someone had nicked the paper. Mind you I suppose the Council's PR or Legal departments could help out - they generate enough BumFodder.
Arguably though whatever they produce is already full of sh*t.
@Jennifer Brown
1 February 2015 at 21:34
Oh but lessons ARE being learned! They are learning that they can get away with anything that involves money, and the larger and more ridiculous the sum, and the more preposterous the arguments are to justify it, the greater the likelihood that they can carry on doing it.
I think it's kind of like, nothing can be addressed now, as so much has gone on before, and it raises the question "well why didn't you do anything previously?" (eh, Audit Commission? Eh?)
Or - we can't say/do anything - look what happens to us when we do (eh would-be whistleblowers? Eh?)
...And yet when a Council employee made FALSE CRIMINAL allegations against two innocent colleagues, he wasn't dismissed, not even suspended, but remained on sick leave for almost a year.
Following his disciplinary, he was offered a job in another office. And there's more......
Anonymous 5/2/15
Yes it beggars belief doesn't? The shenanigans this council will get up to when they need to silence critics whether members of the public or employees would be laughable if it were not for the continuation of their wrongdoing leaving the vulnerable to suffer without redress.
I not only class service users as vulnerable; complainants and whistleblowers are equally vulnerable to wrongful action when public servants believe themselves above the law.
Jennifer Brown (whistleblower)
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