#THELABOURFILES: Former party official has called for member of council’s ethics committee to be disqualified as a councillor over their role in handling documents stolen in a malicious internet hack attack.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Old Hack: Clive Fraser
Clive Fraser, the controversial Labour councillor, returned from his very long holiday in Brazil to discover that he has been the subject of a formal complaint to Croydon Council from a member of the public alleging that he has broken the Town Hall’s strict Code of Conduct.
The complainant has asked the council’s Monitoring Officer to disqualify Fraser from holding public office and being a councillor because he broke the law.
The complaint has arisen following the discoveries made by the investigations unit at broadcasters Al Jazeera, which were included in their documentary, The Spying Game, part of their series The Labour Files.
Inside Croydon understands that the formal complaint is currently under consideration by Croydon Council’s most senior legal official, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, the director of legal services. The complaint even included a link to YouTube version of The Spying Game.
Broadcast last autumn, the programme-makers produced documentary evidence of a malicious hack of this website in early 2021, in which emails were passed to Labour Party officials in Croydon and used to pursue whistleblowers who had dared to express concerns about the running of Croydon Council.
This included a self-incriminating email written by “Thirsty” Fraser, in which he admitted having received the illegally stolen documents.
The complaint has been submitted by David White, a former secretary of the Croydon Central Constituency Labour Party, who was expelled from the party in early 2022 over some eight-year-old pro-Palestinian tweets.
In his complaint over Fraser’s conduct, White suggests that the councillor had committed an offence “contrary to Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990”.
White says that Councillor Fraser, “should have reported this illegal activity to the Information Commissioner’s Office and/or the police, but failed to do so”.
The complaint continues: “Instead, he made a complaint to the Labour Party about me, based on the illegally obtained information. He did not inform me he was doing this. The hacked information was received by Councillor Fraser in his capacity as a councillor at his croydon.gov.uk email address.
Legal complaint: former Labour Party official David White
“Councillor Fraser held a senior position in the council at the time, being chief whip of the majority party. Councillor Fraser had no disciplinary authority over me as I was not a councillor.
“Evidence of what happened is contained in a video made by the Al Jazeera television company called The Labour Files… I can provide copies of the emails referred to in the programme, which relate to my case, if required…
“Councillor Fraser still holds senior positions within the council, including membership of the ethics committee.
“I therefore think it is very important that the council considers the matter about which I am complaining. I ask the council to find that Councillor Fraser’s actions were not in accordance with the Nolan Principles as he did not act lawfully or with integrity and honesty.”
Asked what remedy White hopes to achieve by submitting his complaint, he wrote, “I consider that Councillor Fraser should be disqualified as a councillor.”
White’s complaint was to be considered by council officials according to assessment criteria adopted by… the council’s ethics committee.
The council is supposed to provide a formal response to the complaint before February 6.
Read more: No action taken over councillor’s six-week holiday to Brazil
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: Source of hacked data worked for Evans
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: Whip letters prove they knew hack was illegal
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Well done David, and a thank you from one of the many victims of the data theft, a criminal offence. Maybe now the police will sit up and take notice
Two legitimate choices here. Chuck Fraser out because he committed an offence “contrary to Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990”.
Or chuck him out because he is a fucking useless councillor.
It will be very interesting to see how this Council deals with that complaint.
One hopes that they take it a bit more seriously than breeches by developers of the that Code of Conduct or in fact any building code or regulation failure in ‘perfectly legal developments that include abiding by the Codes of Pactice in the Planning permission’ –
Still who knows? They may surprise us yet and suspend Clive.
That the loss of that vote may enable a majority for Perry to push through shit that is of detriment to residents will be incidental.