‘Missed opportunities to find out about authority’s debts’
DETAILS OF management failings and missed opportunities that allowed a public servant to run up multi-million pound local authority debts were revealed for the first time during this week of 2011.
Four councils in South Yorkshire were left with debts of about £7m as a result of crimes orchestrated by Mike Buckley, who managed South Yorkshire Trading Standards Unit (SYTSU) until his death in 2005.
It was then discovered he had been fiddling the accounts for years, undetected by managers at Sheffield Council and the committee with members from all four authorities which was also responsible for the unit.
Sheffield Council commissioned the Newton Report to establish what went wrong and why Buckley’s “quite unrefined” methods succeeded.
That council was responsible for managing Buckley and was to publish the report. The Yorkshire Post had seen a copy, in which local government expert Neil Newton revealed a series of opportunities where Buckley’s deceit could have been identified years before his death, potentially saving millions of pounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron urged Britons remaining in Libya to “leave now” as he insisted his Government had done everything it could to help UK citizens out of a country descending further into violence and bloodshed. The Government believed up to 500 British nationals still remained in the North African state and fears were growing for up to 170 oil workers stranded in desert camps.
The latest chartered evacuation flight had left the capital Tripoli, carrying 79 passengers including 34 Britons.
As thousands of people attempted to flee Tripoli, fighting between supporters and opponents of dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi escalated.
Meanwhile, a paratrooper who died while disobeying a direct order so he could help a wounded friend was described at his funeral as “the epitome of courage and the finest example of what makes this country great”.
Private Martin Bell, 24, from Bradford, was the 350th UK military fatality in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. Mourners packed Bradford Cathedral for his funeral service with full military honours. They were led by Pte Bell’s parents, Elaine and Simon, and his brothers, Oliver and Philip.
Mrs Bell told the service: “We’ve learned that he truly was courageous.”
She thanked the Paras for their support and said: “We now know why Martin was so proud to be part of such an elite force.”
Pte Bell, from 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, was fatally wounded by the blast from an improvised explosive device (IED) to the south of Nahr-e-Saraj in Helmand province on January 25. He was struck whilst moving to help a comrade injured by another device.
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Harrison, the commanding officer of 2 Para, told the congregation the action which led to Pte Bell losing his life was “one of the bravest acts I’ve witnessed in 23 years of soldiering”.
Courts could grind to a standstill as hundreds of thousands of people represented themselves in legal cases, senior judges warned.
In a scathing attack on proposals to slash legal aid by £350m a year, they have warned that a massive increase in “litigants in person” – ordinary people appearing in court without a lawyer – would slow down the court system and may cost more money down the line.
He was the epitome of courage and the finest example of what makes this country great.