Investigator ‘was sacked by council for being white’

An anti-fraud investigator at a scandal-ridden council is suing the authority, which he claims sacked him for being white and male.

Mark Edmunds, 55, says he lost his job at London’s Tower Hamlets council after overseeing inquiries into a predominantly Asian workforce.

The former worker told a tribunal he was subjected to a campaign of intimidation by many of the employees he had investigated and claimed many were ex-gang members with links to organised crime.

Mr Edmunds was employed by Tower Hamlets, which denies his claims, in January 2010. After a two-year stint working on the London Olympics, he began investigating fraud cases across several departments. He claims 12 senior Asian employees were dismissed as a result.

Mr Edmunds is suing the council for £529,000 over alleged race and sex discrimination, and harassment, after being made redundant from the £63,000-a-year role last year.

An East London employment tribunal heard that risk assessments recommended the former employee work in a secure room and have family protection and

‘I was accused of being a racist’

home security because of his work. But Mr Edmunds claims to have been ‘treated appallingly’, since few of the measures were put in place.

The authority was mired in controversy after the arrival of the borough’s first directly elected mayor Lutfur Rahman in October 2010. He was removed from office after being found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices in 2015.

In 2018, the Met Police said it had not found enough evidence to charge anyone after a £1.7million inquiry into alleged fraud during the 2014 mayoral election.

In a witness statement, Mr Edmunds described an alleged campaign of intimidation while he assisted police with a fraud inquiry. He said: ‘I was regularly accused of being a racist and being a bully when all I was doing was my job.’

Mr Edmunds claims his investigatory role was downgraded by two female managers in a bid to eventually fire him.

A Tower Hamlets spokesman said: ‘We strongly dispute the version of events put forward by Mr Edmunds. [He] was made redundant in a transparent process which was part of a service-wide restructure.’

The hearing continues.