Aug 2016 post about this HERE
the below is taken from http://camdennewjournal.com/article/camden-council-worker-made-list-of-277-vulnerable-pensioners-for-fraudsters
A TOWN Hall employee trawled through sensitive council records to make a list of 277 elderly residents which was passed to fraudsters who then tricked the pensioners out of thousands of pounds.
She was also tricked into handing over £200 in cash. Everyone on the list was aged 78 or 79, the court heard.
update
27 Dec 2017
Camden Council worker jailed HERE
Camden council worker made list of 277 vulnerable pensioners for fraudsters
Social services records used to make list of targets whose bank accounts were drained 01 December, 2017 — By William McLennan
A TOWN Hall employee trawled through sensitive council records to make a list of 277 elderly residents which was passed to fraudsters who then tricked the pensioners out of thousands of pounds.
Charlie
Heath admitted using his position to access the names and addresses of
pensioners, but told Blackfriars Crown Court on Tuesday that he was
acting on the orders of a criminal gang who had threatened him and his
family.
The
23-year-old denied all fraud charges and said that, moments after
printing off the list on May 23 last year, he had a crisis of conscience
and threw it in a confidential waste bin at the council’s King’s Cross
HQ. A jury rejected his claims and yesterday (Thursday) found him guilty.
The court
heard that the list was discovered by police on June 1 in what was
described as a “fraudster’s kit”, alongside the passport, bank cards and
bank statements of a 79-year-old woman who had been conned earlier that
day.
Mr
Heath, who no longer works for Camden Council, told the jury that,
after months of intimidating phone calls, he began to compile the list
in March when the threats escalated.
He said:
“They started to approach me outside of my work. They said they knew
where my sister had worked. “I couldn’t leave my house. Every time I did
people would follow me. I was scared to leave my house.”
He
said he did not report it to authorities because he had “lost all
faith” in police after they failed to prosecute a man who stabbed him in
November 2015.
Mr Heath
told the jury that he decided to give in to the gang’s demands after
they attempted to break into his King’s Cross home on May 20 last year.
He said:
“I couldn’t see my family hurt like that. On the Monday I went to work
as normal and printed off these names. I then just left them and put
them in the confidential waste bin.”
Asked
about his last-minute change of heart, he said: “As soon as it left the
printer I thought about the repercussions and I put it in the
confidential waste bin.
“I was
scared of the repercussions of what these people could do to these
elderly people. I would rather get a kicking than someone else get hurt
because of myself. I felt disgusted about it. At the last hurdle I
decided it was wrong and threw it away.”
He added: “I have no idea how a list of names got from the confidential waste bin into someone else’s hands.”
The
court heard that nine days later police officers travelling with sirens
on through Forest Gate noticed a group of men running from a parked
car. They pursued the men, arresting 20- year-old Shaheedul Abedin at
the scene.
After
carrying out a search, they found a brown envelope, discarded under a
car, which contained the list of names and the passport, bank cards and
statements of a pensioner who had been conned earlier that day by a man
posing as a policemen investigating fraud.
She was also tricked into handing over £200 in cash. Everyone on the list was aged 78 or 79, the court heard.
Officers
forensically analysed the list and found the fingerprints of Mr Heath’s
neighbour, 22-year-old Sayim Ahmed, who was cleared of any involvement
in fraud by the jury.
They also
found prints belonging to Mr Abedin, of Tower Hamlets, and 20-year-old
Kawsar Ahmed, of Lewisham. They were both found guilty of being in
possession of an article for use in fraud. They denied the charges, but
declined to give evidence to the court.
The court
heard that Mr Heath worked as a data “archiver” assigned to the
children’s social services department and had “no reason to access adult
records”.
But when
the list was discovered, a review of computer systems showed he had been
able to access thousands of vulnerable adults’ details over a period of
two months.
He will be sentenced later this month.
27 Dec 2017
Camden Council worker jailed HERE
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