Trading Standards and Bully Boy Behaviour

I have been asking Worcestershire Trading Standards to confirm that they do not hold --- nor does Mr. Hatton hold --- a copy of my data. Please bear in mind that this data includes our personal financial information, letters to my doctor, an Excel spreadsheet with information about my wife's jewellery (sent to our insurance company), etc. There's nothing I wouldn't show to my daughter, but it's not the type of information you want anyone else reading, much less folks in the Council and their one-man-band computer forensics expert, Phill Hatton.

Mr. Dell sent me a message this afternoon:

From: Dell, John (ES, TSS) [mailto:JDell@worcestershire.gov.uk]
Sent: 16 September 2008 16:13
To: Craig Walsh
Cc: Wilkes, Simon (ES, TSS); Armitage, Judy (CS, Consumer Relations)
Subject: FW: Possible Virus in CD-ROM Provided to Lucies Farm Ltd.

Dear Mr Walsh,

Judy Armitage has asked me to respond to your last paragraph.

The current situation is that your data continues to be held on behalf of this authority by consultant Mr Hatton in order that we are able to respond to any further enquiries or actions by yourself. The disc of his report is held under secure storage conditions by this service.

You can remain assured that they are held in a secure manner and they will be destroyed once we are both satisfied that this matter has been concluded.

Yours sincerely,

John Dell Divisional Manager

My first reaction to Mr. Dell's message was, in a word:

What?!

With my blood pressure rising, I sent Mr. Dell the following reply:

From: Craig Walsh
Sent: 16 September 2008 17:17
To: 'Dell, John (ES, TSS)'
Cc: Wilkes, Simon (ES, TSS); Armitage, Judy (CS, Consumer Relations); [...] Forensic-computing@blueyonder.co.uk; Marjorie J. Walsh; 'Slade, Richard'; Tom Wells

Subject: RE: Possible Virus in CD-ROM Provided to Lucies Farm Ltd.

Importance: High

Dear Mr. Dell --

Thank you for your message, just received.

This is not what was agreed at all, and is completely contrary to earlier assurances given by the Council to us and to our customers.

To refresh your memory, attached is a PDF file.

In her letter to me of 4 September 2008 Ms. Blanchard wrote, “With regard to the data recovered from your computer, this was recorded on one disc, which has been held in a secure location at the Trading Standards office, with restricted access. Now that the investigation is complete, this disc will be destroyed.”

We now know that Ms. Blanchard’s statement was untrue. The “data recovered” was also held by Mr. Hatton, apparently at his home. There is also some indication that he may also have sent our data to the Malvern Hills District Council.

In Ms. Blanchard’s letter to our customers of 4 September 2008 --- a redacted copy is attached --- she advised the majority of our customers, “Please be assured that all data containing personal records will now be destroyed.”

Again, this appears to be untrue. You are now unilaterally continuing to hold our data at Trading Standards and are continuing to allow Mr. Hatton to hold a further copy. This is our data --- it does not belong to the Council or to Mr. Hatton. It largely belongs to me, and the overwhelming majority of the data is personal and has nothing to do with the dog kennel or farm operations.

Please confirm, immediately, if Mr. Hatton is holding our data on his premises. If this is the case, we have been unable to establish that he has an office, so would believe he would be holding our data in his home in Wolverhampton. This brings up questions about his lack of registration under the DPA 1998 and the security arrangements in place at his residence.

I am so incensed by this that I am minded to instruct our solicitors to obtain injunctive relief for the return of our data.

Your office has already advised us that your investigation is concluded: Ms. Blanchard talks about “detailed enquiries.” All that now remains is for us to try to ascertain if the Council acted in an appropriate manner in the conduct of its investigation, in accordance with the various policies stated on your website and embodied in the law. It is our absolute right to do this, as you are no doubt aware.

Please clarify the exact location of our data --- all of our data --- by return.

I fear that the expense of injunctive relief --- with an order for costs against the Council and Mr. Hatton --- is looming. This is truly unfortunate. I have tried to act in a constructive and courteous manner in lodging my complaint with the Council. My actions have been met with apparent deception --- and you are now holding our data effectively to ransom.

I look forward to hearing from you, or from your boss, immediately. I have copied the Worcester News on this e-mail, and if our data --- all copies of our data --- is not returned forthwith, we will also send an e-mail to all of our customers advising them of your volte face, and will encourage them to file complaints against the Council and Mr. Hatton with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You and Ms. Blanchard have, I believe, seen how supportive --- and how vocal --- our customers can be. You can speculate on how vocal they will be when they learn about Mr. Hatton’s involvement, and the fact that Ms. Blanchard’s earlier assurances were apparently untruthful.

This will be my last e-mail on the subject. You have a very short period, Mr. Dell, in which to do the right thing. Otherwise we will have no choice but to seek assistance from the Courts.

Craig Walsh