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Town Hall rapped for snooping
CAMDEN Council unfairly went on a ‘fishing mission’ by searching through a council tenant and his family’s past history, the Information Commissioner has ruled.
The Town Hall launched a private detective-style investigation into Michael Barnett, 29, as part of their attempts to evict him from his Somers Town flat.
Officials made repeated searches of Mr Barnett’s credit history and then went on to investigate his mother, brother and sister. Relatives unconnected to the eviction case had their credit histories analysed.
The extent of the council’s probe earlier this year was only revealed when Mr Barnett complained to the Information Commissioner about the lengths that the Town Hall had gone to.
Despite being reprimanded by the Commissioner, Camden Council has made no apology for its actions.
The Commissioner has no powers to punish the council but, in his ruling, told Mr Barnett’s family: “It was not necessary or reasonable for Camden to embark on a fishing expedition by requesting a search on you simply because you were related to Michael Barnett… It is likely that the London Borough of Camden has contravened the first data protection principle.”
Mr Barnett is fighting eviction from his council flat in Hampstead Road.
He originally moved into the property after swapping the council tenancy he held in his hometown of Brighton with a Camden resident.
When he returned to Brighton for six months, the Town Hall demanded the flat back.
A council spokesman said: “We often need to make a number of searches on accounts because there will often be multiple records and duplicate records as a result of the way data is stored by credit reference agencies. In some cases that will involve looking into records of family members.”
There is no suggestion that the council will give up the “fishing expedition” investigations.
Mr Barnett is planning to fight the eviction at the High Court in the New Year on the basis that the information used to win an initial order was gathered unfairly.
He said: “I would not expect a local authority to be making repeated credit searches on a council tenant. ”
While the council is allowed to make an initial credit check in certain legal cases, the Information Commissioner discovered Camden had made repeated background searches which he regarded as “excessive and unfair”.
A council press official said: “Mr Barnett has not been living in this Camden Council property and effectively stopping it from being available as a home, perhaps for a homeless family or one of the many people on the council’s waiting list.
“Credit reference searches are a vital tool to prove or disprove who is actually living in a council home – as it shows us whether someone has been living actively in one place or another.” |
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