Lawbreakers: Croydon’s Mayor and the Tory policing minister remain members of a secret social media group that has celebrated acts of criminal vandalism
CROYDON IN CRISIS: London is suffering a Tory-inspired crime wave which saw more than nine incidents every day in September attacking ULEZ cameras and equipment. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Broken principles: Tory Mayor Jason Perry is subject to an official complaint over his conduct
A formal complaint has been filed to the Borough Solicitor over Croydon Mayor Jason Perry’s role in “anti-social media” – his secret Facebook group where criminal damage and vandalism to public property is condoned and often encouraged.
Inside Croydon went undercover to monitor the activities of the “Croydon say no to ULEZ expansion”, where pro-pollution Perry is a group admin and “group expert”, while policing minister Chris “Soft On Criminals” Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, is a group member.
Inside Croydon and Private Eye magazine have also both established that Perry’s Facebook group added a sentence to their rules warning against encouraging criminal behaviour only after they had been approached by the publications for comment.
Now, Croydon Council’s Monitoring Officer, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, has been asked to consider piss-poor Perry’s prima facie breach of the Nolan Principles.
The Nolan Principles on conduct in public life are entrenched in the council’s code of conduct. “All public office-holders are both servants of the public and stewards of public resources,” they say.
The Nolan Principles require those in public office, such as Croydon’s Tory Mayor, at all times to demonstrate “Accountability”, “Openness” and “Honesty”.
On the beat: policing minister Chris Philp did not get his collar felt on this occasion
“Leadership” is another of the seven principles, which demands office-holders “should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs”.
The complaint lodged over Conservative Perry’s conduct comes as official Met Police figures for September showed at least 285 ULEZ-related crimes in September, a rate of more than nine incidents per day throughout the month.
The Met say that they have been deploying extra officers to deal with this Tory-inspired crime wave, leaving fewer officers available to handle other criminal activity.
A total of 795 ULEZ crimes have been recorded in the six months to the end of September. Of those, 200 were reports of cameras being stolen, while 595 cameras have been damaged.
A 52-year-old man was arrested in Bexley on September 22 on suspicion of criminal damage. Two others have been arrested as part of the police operation to tackle ULEZ-related crime, with one set to face a trial in June 2024.
ULEZ, the Ultra Low Emission Zone, was extended to all of outer London at the end of August, with anyone driving non-compliant vehicles for the first month receiving a warning letter. The £12.50 per day charge for the most polluting vehicles is being charged now.
A Transport for London spokesperson told the BBC, “Camera vandalism will not stop the ULEZ operating London-wide.”
In the formal complaint lodged with Croydon Council about Mayor Perry’s conduct, it said of the “Croydon say no to ULEZ expansion” Facebook group: “Members of this group have posted multiple messages encouraging or condoning breaches of the criminal law, such as criminal damage to ULEZ cameras.
Party of law and order: Chris Philp is among almost 2,000 members of a secret Facebook group that regularly applauds acts of criminal damage
“Until this matter was raised by the media (such as Inside Croydon and Private Eye) there was not even a rule in the group that there should be no encouragement of illegal activity. Such a rule has now belatedly been added, but only after the media outlets publicised the matter.
“To the best of my knowledge Mayor Perry has still not provided to the authorities evidence of criminal activity revealed in the Facebook group.
“I believe that Mayor Perry’s actions, or lack of them, are contrary to the Nolan Principles.”
The complainant has suggested remedies for the Mayor’s contempt for the rule of law, including an apology from Perry and for him to shut down his dodgy Facebook group.
“There would, of course, be no objection to the setting up of a new group which made it clear from the outset that it will not tolerate postings which encourage or condone illegal behaviour, and that any evidence of such behaviour will be reported to the police and other authorities.”
Read more: Perry should apologise for anti-ULEZ Facebook group says MP
Read more: Perry slow to stop cars parking in town centre pedestrian zone
Read more: Mayor Perry accepted hundreds of pounds of gifts in first year
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SIXTH successive year in 2022 in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
So to recap
Perry set up a group – involved Philp as minister of state for Crime, Policing and Fire-on a privateFace book group that did not condone illegal acts of vandalism and ”liked them” ”congratulated the acts” Got caught then tried to retrospectively airbrush a rule into the rules of the group and failed to ”Act”?
I think this time Stan Laural will be correctly uttering the immortal words ” Ollie this is another fine mess you ahve gotten us into!
But it gets better
Inside Croydon broke the story after some (perhaps at times tedious scrolling through facebook) investigative journalism that was followed up by a private eye Magazine that sells publicly (obviously) and led to a complaint being filed with Croydon Council’s Monitoring Officer.
This Croydon Council’s Monitoring Officer one Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense the erstwhile legal beagle who had the (mis?f)ortune to take the veritable ( albeit ether and cloud based) mag IC to the High Court to prevent the dissemination of data that his good body Croydon Council had (in?) advertantly put on their own public website and was seen by 16,000+ readers plus up to 365,000 Borough residents
That was met with the adjudication of ”Well that horse has seriously bolted”
Genie out of the bottle and all that gumpf. Hmmmm
Sonow Croydon Council’s Monitoring Officer, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense has to investigate his own Executive Mayor on shit done and disseminated by that Ether mag he wanted to silence? Ouch!
Well we can see the Crime, know who has to Police it and there is definitely a fire under a couple of rear holes at this moment in time.
I think I may have walked by that skunk factory on the London road once too often.
As you really could not make this shit up!
You know, I reckon Perry didn’t understand the technology – the whole thing is a f***up. Older people shouldn’t mess with social media. It’s never going to end well.
Ignorance, although entirely plausible in the case of piss-poor Perry, is never an excuse.
Our part-time Mayor could always close the page he and his Thatcher Youth leader son and Councillor Luke Shortland set up, with a little help from a couple of other Tory party employees. But he won’t.
That’s because he doesn’t care about crime if it’s committed by motorists.
It’s also because these Facebook pages are part of a Tory party propaganda drive to try and win the next Mayor of London, London Assembly and General elections.
The Conservatives, who have wrecked the economy and are destroying our democracy and getting busy in removing our human rights, are using these Facebook pages to present themselves as helping the poor beleaguered motorist against the forces of oppression.
A lot of people are stupid enough to believe them.
Wonder if Lawrence Fox is a member of Perry’s FB group?
I wonder when the Met Police will apply the same principles of upholding the law with the policing minister or Croydon Mayor
Maybe it’ll have to be a “citizen’s arrest” for Philp?