Collusion and Fraud by Portsmouth Public Servants

This case started when the names, addresses, and amount of Council Tax debt of over 6,000 Portsmouth residents were sent out by Portsmouth Magistrates Court in an unreacted document compiled by Portsmouth City Council as part of a Freedom of Information Request, which led to the discovery of an illegal summons and fraud.

Data Breach

Back in July, Rob had asked Portsmouth Magistrates Court to send him his own hearing details with all of the other residents’ information redacted, but the Court emailed an MS Word file to him containing 1,047 pages, which had originally been compiled by Portsmouth City Council. 

Rob says: “This breach has undermined my confidence in the ability of the council to follow data protection procedures and therefore operate as a competent data controller.  I am left wondering who has been given access to my personal data via a similar FOI request. It is my opinion that the ICO should investigate what process the council is using to censor sensitive information and the process the court has to check data before it is released. These residents may be at risk of identity theft, discrimination, fraud, or reputational damage.”

Illegal Court Summons

The Liability Order hearing for the 6,000 was held at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday 12th July 2023. However, there is some confusion about the legality of the summons that was sent out by the Council, which may lead to enforcement action being called-off.

On June 20th 2023, Portsmouth City Council sent an email to Portsmouth Magistrates Court requesting permission to issue summonses for unpaid council tax. Without receiving that permission the council sent the summonses out to the 6,000 on the same day. Permission was not granted by Portsmouth Magistrates Court until June 21st.

The summons could be considered illegal because it was issued by the council the day before it was authorised by the court. This means that the court action made against them could be considered fraudulent. This may give the 6,000 grounds to have the Liability Order set aside.

Fraud

The same group later discovered that Portsmouth City Council had instructed all people summoned to Portsmouth Magistrates Court for non payment of council tax not to attend their Liability Order Hearing. This was evidenced by a recorded message made by the council.

As 5,997 people did not attend at the request of the council, the Magistrates sitting on the 12th July; Mrs L Less, Mr A Day, and Ms D Johnson, awarded costs of £125 each against the people who did not appear, netting a profit of £750,000 in just three hours.

Council on Notice

Sarah Kirby and Nicky Turrell from Portsmouth City Council have been put on notice with a Notice of Misconduct in Public Office by a group of men and women who are challenging the legality of the summons they received along with an official complaint about the Data Breach of over 6,000 names on a Liability Order list. The video can be seen here: https://gab.com/PortsmouthDataBreach/posts/110996193330007710 .

Crime Number

The information was also reported to Hampshire Police along with an allegation of fraud made against the Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth Magistrates Court who allocated a Crime Reference Number 44230353040.

Collusion and Unlawful Behaviour

Throughout the course of this case it has become evident that Portsmouth Magistrates Court is in collusion with Portsmouth City Council, and now Hampshire Constabulary are in collusion with them both, protecting them by closing the case of fraud without any investigation after only a week.

It was reported to the Police that Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth Magistrates Court had committed fraud when Portsmouth City Council asked the 6,000 not to turn up to the Liability Order hearing and then Magistrates sitting on 12th July; Mrs L Less, Mr A Day, and Ms D Johnson, awarded costs of £125 each for not turning up, netting a profit of £750,000 in one day.

The fact that the Police and the media are not interested in investigating this fraud against the people shows that our public servants are not serving the people.

This story was sent to The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Sun, and the local papers in Portsmouth: The News, Daily Echo, Hampshire Live, and The Star & Crescent. We emailed and followed them all up and none of the journalists came back to us for further information.

Watch this video shot outside Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday 6th September as the Hampshire Constabulary refuse to arrest any of the Magistrates who are repeating the procedure on another few thousand non payers of council tax with the intention of making another £750,000 profit.

If Portsmouth City Council hire the court once a month with 6,000 non payers of council tax per hearing they will net £9,000,000 per annum from some of the poorest members of Portsmouth.

As the cost of living crises escalates, Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth Magistrates Court certainly seem to know how to keep winning.

Watch this video as Hampshire Police, who were called by the court, walk away without arresting any of the council or court staff: https://gab.com/PortsmouthDataBreach/posts/111030854422093598.