ROOM AGAIN AT INN
A COP whose own police force spied on her illegally is on the brink of bankruptcy and facing a potential £200,000 legal bill.
Andrea Brown won a high-profile case after Scotland Yard officers used anti-terror laws to monitor her when she went on sick leave.
Now the former detective constable – who was once a Metropolitan Police poster girl – says she has been “crushed” and left to survive on only £73 a week jobseeker’s allowance.
If a judge rules against her in a court hearing next year, she says she may be ordered to pay the force’s legal fees.
Single mum Andrea, 50, turned down an offer higher than the £ 9,000 damages she won.
So even though the force lost, she could be made to pay its costs, and may have to sell her Suffolk home.
She said: “The force spied on me when I was on sick leave. If the ruling goes against me I’ll be homeless. My career is in tatters. I can never go back.
“And to top it off I may have to pay their fees, a bill of as much as £200,000. I’ll be left bankrupt. It’s so wrong.”
The force investigated Andrea while she was off with depression.
She was potentially gulty of breaching disciplinary rules because she told her Police Federation representative, but not her manager, that she was taking her daughter to visit family in Barbados. CHRISTMAS spirit is flowing freely after determined locals saved their doomed pub.
The New Inn closed in July and developers were about to move in when drinkers took action.
They set up a community group, backed by the Power to Change charitable foundation, to save the village boozer in Norton Lindsey, Warwicks.
Now they are on the way to raising £300,000 needed to buy it through a share offer. People can invest between £250 and £60,000 and become members – and democratic owners – of
Senior officers at Sutton police station in South London used powers designed to investigate serious crime and terrorism to obtain private information about her whereabouts.
The National Border Targeting Centre was approached. And an application was made to Virgin Atlantic for details of Andrea’s movements, citing a non-existent “Police Act 2007”.
Last week it was revealed Cleveland Police had unlawfully hacked the phone of a Daily Mirror reporter investigating the force’s chief constable Sean Price, later sacked for gross misconduct.
Breaches
Andrea, whose face appeared on a poster in the lobby of New Scotland Yard for several years, said she was shocked by the intrusion.
“I joined the Met in 1993. For 20 years I loved my career. I loved my job. But that’s all now been taken away. I had to take it to a tribunal or no one would know how I was treated.
“But because of that decision I’m facing financial ruin.”
Greater Manchester Police said: “It is right that a defendant in a civil claim, particularly a public body, is given the opportunity to protect itself against unrealistic claims for damages.”
Andrea quit in 2013 and sued the Met and Greater Manchester Police, which helps run the NBTC. At Central London county court, both forces admitted data protection breaches.
A claim for misfeasance in public office(abuse of power) was thrown out. the pub. Power to Change has given advice plus support including a £2,500 bursary and a £100,000 grant/loan package.
Rob Brook, Chairman of The New Inn Salvation Squad said: “This amazing journey from despair to joy has firmly cemented our village community together as we look forward to a new and brighter future for our pub.”
In two other successful Power to Change schemes, locals have taken over the Sir Charles Napier in Blackburn and the Centurion in Vicars Cross, Cheshire, which also offers internet workshops and an after-school club.