This blog has repeatedly highlighted the shocking bullying of the Darren Cooper / Jan Britton regime at Labour Sandwell Council but this story is eye-watering even by the gutter-level standards of "The Comrades". Further, we have constantly highlighted the fact that at least one corrupt senior officer at
West Midlands Police is providing "protection" to Britton's bent Council and that the local "Cowards in Blue" are only too happy to help Labour Councillors exercise their dictatorial control over the benighted Borough and its unfortunate populace. But here, the Council and their pals at WMP actually tried to have a man committed to prison for daring to oppose the regime!
Regular readers will know that I have previously blogged about an anonymous individual who had the misfortune to come into contact with Jan Britton's colleague, Helen Williams:
http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/dont-fck-with-helen-williams.html
Sandwell Council say that they used their alleged powers under the "Safer Sandwell Partnership" to try and discover if their victim had mental health problems. When they established that he didn't, Helen Williams still referred to this is a court statement in a pathetic attempt to denigrate him.
I can now name the victim of the bullying as Mr Lee Garmston of Wednesbury. Lee is a working man with a wife and three young children - just the sort of person the Comrades purport to represent (at least in pre-Corbyn days.) Lee does not profess to be some sort of saint and he has been vociferous in complaints to the bent Council. He has fought his corner aggressively as is his legal right.
Let's go back to the beginning. Mr Garmston bought his own house but the next-door property is a council house belonging to "Sadwell" Council. For around 10 years Mr Garmston says that his neighbour was an habitual drug-user and there was some conflict. (Incidentally, this was a single person living in a three-bedroom Council house! Maybe he was another "friend" of the Comrades?)
The addict moved out and Lee pleaded with Sadwell to put in a family and not another drug-user. But then Sadders put in another single person (into a three-bedroom house) - a woman who was known to them as having a poor tenancy record. Indeed, I have the evidence of Helen Williams confirming to Lee that the new tenant had been issued a formal warning by SMBC BEFORE she was moved in next-door! Lee says that there was trouble right from the off and on one occasion his wife called the police who attended the properties. But the drug-using tenant then made a complaint to the Council about LEE and someone in Britton's bent empire seems to have viewed this as a great opportunity to shaft the loud complainant Mr Garmston once and for all!
A meeting was arranged for Lee to attend to see Helen Williams at the council offices in Wednesbury. It seems that SMBC had already decided to issue him with a "warning" despite all his complaints and based solely on the word of a tenant they already knew to be problematic. But at the meeting Helen Williams inexplicably had a West Midlands Police officer in tow - WPC Charlene Tranter!
(There is, of course, a Labour Councillor by the name of Tranter. I wrote to him asking if he is related to Charlene but he has declined to respond!)
Lee immediately objected to a police officer being present at the meeting but it went ahead anyway. Remember that Lee is NOT a council tenant but as the meeting got heated WPC Tranter "joined in" with support for Williams and was shouting at Mr Garmston.
The meeting ended acrimoniously with Lee shouting that he would not accept service of a warning letter from the Council. Lee was shouting that the Council was "useless" right at the end when Tranter did the age-old Copper's trick of "hearing" something that wasn't said. She asked "was that a threat?" when no threat had been made.
Britton's staff - including their legal staff - then decided to "get" Mr Garmston and they served a without notice injunction upon him issued in Walsall County Court under Case Number B00WJ456 and an Interim Injunction was issued on 13th May, 2015. But Sandwell Council are not used to people fighting back against their bullying and Lee instructed solicitors and fought the case all the way - risking several thousand pounds of his own money.
Now it gets interesting because Helen Williams and WPC Charlene Tranter seemingly collaborated and supplied written statements to Walsall County Court implying that Mr Garmston was a violent man. To put the icing on the cake, Britton's corrupt staff then applied to the Court to have Lee committed to prison on the basis that, at the meeting referred to above, Mr Garmston had physically threatened both of THEM. They both gave statements remembering exactly that at the meeting Lee told them to "watch their backs".
Let us just pause a moment and imagine the predicament Lee found himself in. A senior Council employee and a serving police officer were telling a Court that Mr Garston was violent. Two people were backing themselves up against one to say that he had actually also threatened THEM. They tried to smear Lee with a suggestion that they had legitimate concerns about his mental health. Sandwell had a bottomless pit of money to continue with the case and crush their victim. Lee was already forking out thousands of pounds to try and defend himself. A hearing was listed for 21st August, 2015 to deprive this husband, working-man and father of three of his liberty! Many lesser people would have crumpled under the pressure and Lee's situation was very bleak indeed. But for one thing.....
Lee had secretly recorded the meeting with Williams and Tranter on his phone. The recording on CD (a copy of which is held by the Skidder and which is available to interested parties) contains no threat and Williams and the Copper were not telling the truth in their COURT STATEMENTS. It is very important to note here that WMP have subsequently had the tape forensically tested and THEY confirm that it has NOT been tampered with in any way.
Suddenly Williams and Tranter became unavailable to attend court due to "ill-health". Ms Helen Williams was said to be off work due to "stress and anxiety". When a lawyer for SMBC told that to the Judge at Walsall County Court Lee checked WPC Tranter's Facebook pages (now closed) and found these (then recent) entries:
There is clearly a question whether the police officer was doing "an Hipkiss"* and that needs further enquiry by WMP Professional Standards and others. Why wasn't she available to attend Walsall County Court?
Eventually on 19th November, 2015 - after Britton's bullies had put a man under massive "stress and anxiety" - they threw in the towel and the actions of Helen Williams and her supporters within the Council cost the taxpayer £8,000 in legal costs payable to Lee (but, because of the way civil costs are calculated, he is still out of pocket). The injunction was lifted and the threat of imprisonment removed.
I have to say it is unclear to me why Lee's legal advisors did not apply to the Judge for possible contempt of court proceedings against Williams and Tranter. My understanding is that their untrue statements (to attempt to have a man imprisoned) were supported by "Statements of Truth" in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules and this is what the rules say:
17.6 - False Statements
(1) Proceedings for contempt of court maybe brought against a person who makes, or causes to be made a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.
(2) Proceedings under this rule may be brought only-
(a) by the Attorney General; or
(b) with the permission of the court.
It seems to me that the lawyers should have made a suitable application to the Judge. Then the two women could have stated on oath how exactly they formed an "honest belief" that their statements were true!
But Lee did report all this to the Police and the matter was eventually referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. Let us pause again. The evidence against Williams and Tranter is contained in the tape and in the two statements from Williams and Tranter WHICH WERE SUBMITTED TO A COURT OF LAW. Nevertheless, this perfectly straightforward matter was inexplicably referred to the "CPS West Midlands' Complex Casework Unit"!
As shown above the Attorney General can consider contempt of court proceedings but the CPS have apparently not considered this but possible offences of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office instead. They claim "perjury is not an available offence as the suspects did not give sworn evidence."
I had to maintain Lee's anonymity in the earlier blog because the CPS were still considering prosecution. This is what the District Prosecutor wrote to Lee:
"There can be little doubt that the content of the witness statements that Helen Williams and Charlene Tranter made about what was said in the course of the meeting at Sandwell Council House [sic] on 12th March, 2015 was wrong, in so far as they claimed that you had told them to watch their backs. It is clear from the recording that you made that no such words were used."
Game, set and match? Alas no. The CPS concluded that even though the "wrong" statements had actually been submitted to a Court of Law there was insufficient evidence to prosecute FFS! The CPS appear to be implying that two people "remembering" exact words which were never uttered might have been "a mistake"!
Mr Garmston also made a formal complaint to Sadwell Council. We know that Cooper and Britton attempted to crush all opposition whilst fraud and corruption was taking place over a prolonged period of time but you might have thought that having cost taxpayers thousands and inflicted astonishing suffering on an individual they might have shown a little humility. Not a bit of it. No apology from the ludicrous Britton and no offer to compensate Lee. This could have been funded by the immediate uncompensated dismissal of Helen Williams (followed closely by the departure of the disastrous Britton himself). So what action did Britton take?
We have mocked the desire for secrecy from the crazed Comrades but this is what Britton's staff shockingly wrote to Lee:
"I can confirm that the Council have now completed their investigation. Unfortunately I am unable to disclose further information in relation to the outcome however I would advise that the matter has now been resolved".
The authors of this Kafka-esque b*llocks also require immediate disciplinary action for the utter contempt they have shown to this man by writing in this way. I believe that they are Mark Periket and/or Norman Fletcher (who has, of course, appeared in this blog before concerning the disgraced Adrian Scarrott.)
Lee had to object again but got little more joy from Mr Stuart Taylor:
Thank you for your correspondence dated 12/06/2017 regarding the outcome of the complaint you submitted to the Council. I can confirm that your complaint has been upheld in that the actions you raised have been substantiated and that your complaint has now been dealt with. Following your complaint I can confirm that internal action has been taken in accordance with the Council’s policies and procedures. The Council is beholden under the Data Protection Act not to disclose third party information to people that do not have a right of access to it, further the Freedom of Information Act Section 40 makes it clear that the Council cannot disclose third party information without clear legal reason.
Therefore the Council can confirm that internal action has been taken following an investigation of your complaint but cannot confirm any further details without it breaching the duties placed upon it by the Data Protection Act.
Clearly, it would be grossly inequitable if Helen Williams is still drawing a salary and generous pension contributions from the taxpayer after this but we will have to fight on to ensure her dismissal has taken place or will be happening shortly.
We are now approaching the first anniversary of WPC Tranter making a false statement in a court of law but as far as Lee and I know she remains an officer within bent WMP. Professional Standards have not confirmed whether any action has been taken against her and we now call for the Chief Constable to intervene here (although he was a massive fan of the late Smethwick Scumbag so don't hold your breath.)
At least four Labour Councillors have told me that Eling cannot sack Britton because the latter has "too much on him" (whatever that means) but some of the senior councillors need to get a grip here. Cllr Piper may like to play the class clown but he is an intelligent man and surely he and some of the saner members can get together to ensure the departures of Britton and Williams? Perhaps they could encourage Eling (if he is not away in Rotherham or Derbyshire) to make a public apology to Lee at the next Council meeting and consider what compensation he can be offered?
If there are also any lawyers out there who can suggest appropriate action please get in touch.
CODA
Many of you dear readers have been in touch asking why I did not report the threatening behaviour of Mr and Mrs Eling at the election count to WMP. Read the above for your answer!
* Andrew Hipkiss of the Yew Tree Estate is a notorious social media troll used by the late Smethwick Scumbag, Darren Cooper, in his attacks on myself and my wife (this being well-known to bent WMP). Hipkiss gets state benefits as he is allegedly "too ill to leave his house" yet managed to board a plane for a trip to Disneyland in Florida! He claims the Department of Work and Pensions authorised this excursion!
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Email: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com
PROUD TO HAVE BEEN TROLLED BY DICKHEAD DARREN COOPER DECEASED!
