Council employees are not allowed to have second jobs, although part-time Perry, Croydon’s £84,000 per year ‘executive’ Mayor, holds three directorships with private companies
‘Hybrid’ working: a council employee was working for Barnet for two years before anyone noticed
A Croydon Council housing official has been given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and fined £10,000 after she was caught moonlighting with a second full-time job at another London authority.
Croydon Council says it dismissed Sally Bodom after she was discovered also to be working at Barnet Council.
Bodom joined the full-time staff at Croydon’s housing department in July 2016, but for two years she managed to juggle a second job while “hybrid” working.
Once Bodom had her collar felt and got sent down just before Christmas, a spokesperson for Croydon Council said that they took a dim view of such conduct.
“We will not tolerate staff taking on secondary employment which has not been approved by the council,” they said, somewhat suggesting that there are examples of secondary jobs of which they will “approve”. Like £84,000 per year part-time executive Mayor Jason Perry having three directorships in private companies, for example.
“We take a proactive approach on detecting possible signs of dual working,” the Croydon Council spox told the Local Government Lawyer website.
The council spokesperson failed to say what these “proactive” measures might involve.
But no one in Dean “Shagger” Shoesmith’s HR department at Fisher’s Folly managed to notice that Bodom was working as a business support officer in Barnet’s family services department for almost two whole years, before the double pay cheques were spotted in a fraud swoop conducted in Barnet in July 2024.
‘Shagger’: no one in Dean Shoesmith’s HR department noticed Bodom’s ‘polygamous working’
It has been suggested that Bodom managed to convince managers in Barnet (where she initially “worked” for four days a week) and in Croydon that she was giving them her undivided attention because she was “working from home”.
“Our hybrid working policy… states that employees are contractually required to work in the London Borough of Croydon and attend their workplace regularly,” the council spox trotted out, without elaborating on what they mean by “regularly”: once a month, perhaps, or once in a blue moon?
“We have measures in place to identify and reduce risks, ensuring officers are held accountable.” Or not, as in this case.
It was Barnet, and not Croydon, who prosecuted Bodom, and just before Christmas at Willesden Magistrates’ Court she was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. She was further ordered to perform unpaid work, complete rehabilitation activity requirements and pay £10,000 compensation. To Barnet.
Croydon gets nothing.
In court, Bodom’s crime was described as “polygamous working” – the practice of holding more than one full-time job simultaneously.
Having been employed by Croydon for six years, Bodom started working at Barnet in 2022, and moved to full-time hours with them in March 2024. According to Barnet, Bodom was paid in excess of £60,000 in salary throughout her time there.
Her council contract at Barnet, like Croydon’s, prohibited “undeclared additional employment that could interfere with her duties”.
At her court hearing, Bodom entered a guilty plea to one count of fraud by false representations and one count of fraud by failing to disclose.
Barry Rawlings, the veteran Labour councillor who is Barnet’s council leader, spoke of his hope that “this prosecution will really highlight the seriousness of this modern-day fraud of polygamous working and will be a strong deterrent”.
Barnet Council even issued a press release about the case, and published the news on its website. Croydon Council has kept schtum, presumably hoping no one will notice, a bit like no one “proactively” noticed Sally Bodom was bunking off to work for Barnet for two years…
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This shows how little you have to do to be employed at Croydon Council if you can work full-time elsewhere for two years and no one notices. ‘We have measures in place to identify and reduce risks, ensuring officers are held accountable’ which is why they didn’t notice. What is Shagger and his army of HR people doing all day long? Oh, working from home. Who in CC will be held accountable? Her manager? Shagger? Of course not. We just paid for her salary and enormous pension for two years for nothing.
She earnt her money. I think the rule is ludicrous.
Croydon Council: “Second jobs are strictly forbidden.”
Employee: has two full-time jobs
Council: “Absolutely unacceptable.”
Executive Mayor on £84k: working part-time… with three directorships
Council: “That’s called leadership multitasking.”
Apparently, at Croydon, having two jobs is a crime — unless you collect them like Pokémon at executive level.