Name and Shame UK
We expose the dirty deedsters
Who are we? What do we do?
Vigilant Observer writes ...
When I started this website in 2006, I wanted to publish information about corrupt and dishonest companies I had encountered personally. I wanted to warn others who might otherwise fall foul of their devious antics. But then I started to observe the antics of my local council - the London Borough of Bexley - and I felt they should be exposed. Since then, the feedback I get from visitors shows that there are many other local authorities just like Bexley, and a great many more that are even worse. As a result, this site now covers the experiences of my contributors. Directly or indirectly, every single one of them is a member of the Name and Shame 'team' and without them it would merely be a boring story about my personal battles with bureaucracy.
But the credit for this page should go to one of Bexley's councillors who made the most astonishing and totally unfounded allegations about the content I published in respect of my dealings with Bexley Council, all of which I could back up with documented evidence. But true facts and documented evidence do not figure in the thoughts of people like Councillor Peter Craske. They think that having a title like "Councillor" makes them extremely important and gives them the right to consider themselves better than the rest of us. That's exactly the sort of mental attitude that turns such idiots into the dangerous animals they really are.
However, one of Craske's criticisms was that I named some of the fraudsters who are employed by Bexley Council and published correspondence from them without ever revealing my own identity. That's a nonsense of course because it's not too difficult to trace a website's owner. The information is in the public domain and is easily accessed. But trying to expose corrupt practises does have its dangers and I know for a fact that one of my correspondents had his life threatened by a senior legal official in a large northern city, with the initial instructions coming from a member of parliament who once held very high office in the New Labour government. That's how dangerous these people are!
You certainly make enemies of some really nasty people when you attempt to expose their activities so I don't propose to make it too easy for them to arrange for me to have an 'accident'. But I will tell you that I have written a book about government conspiracy and I have helped other aspiring authors to get their books into print. I am now a pensioner and, like most pensioners, I wonder how I ever found time to work. This website keeps me fully occupied and I struggle to keep abreast of the feedback I receive but I will keep going because I despise the people who are trying to turn our once-proud nation into a satellite of Europe and constantly turn innocent people into criminals while, at the same time, treating real criminals like special cases.
For the moment I will retain the alias of "Vigilant Observer" although my true identity is partly revealed to the correspondents who write to me about their personal experiences and thus become members of the Name and Shame team.
Yours
Mike C
Visitors' Comments
Why we do it
When you publish the sort of material I have on this website, there is always the risk that someone will sue you for defamation. Most will try to bury their heads in the sand and hope the fuss blows over but others will use the law of defamation to hit back at you.
So it was that Richard Hayden of Rayden Engineering in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, started such an action in August 2009, primarily against a lady whose house borders his factory yard and also against me, as I had taken up the cudgels and backed her fight to seek justice for the suffering she, her family, and her neighbours had endured after Hayden illegally took over a flood plain and covered it with hardcore, thus causing his neighbours' homes to be flooded after particularly heavy rainfalls.
You can read the full story on these pages but I can briefly report that the case finally went to the Royal Courts of Justice on 14th October 2010 and was heard by Mrs Justice Sharp. Her judgment, sealed by the court on 1st December 2010, was that Hayden's actions were struck out and judgment was entered for the defendants - DC and myself. Dame Victoria Sharp also refused the claimant's application for leave to appeal.
After many long months of legal battles, we thought that was the end of the matter ... unfortunately, it was not. Richard Hayden decided to blame his solicitor, John Frith, (at that time working for Berryman but now untraceable) for losing the case, appointed a new solicitor, Paul Balen of Freeth Cartwright, and applied to the High Court for leave to appeal, purportedly based on new evidence. The appeal was granted and was heard on 15th June 2011. Thankfully, the appeal judges decide in our favour and dismissed Hayden's appeal.
In the meantime, I would like to relate one episode which occurred during the run-up to the hearing in October. At a pre-trial review before His Honour Judge Mackie in June 2010, the claimants, not for the first time, failed to produce documents they had been ordered to produce by a Court Master in March 2010. Judge Mackie was not pleased but he gave them another bite of the cherry and set new deadlines for the material to be presented. He also awarded costs to DC and myself, to be paid within 14 days.
Again, Richard Hayden failed to obey the orders of the High Court. DC eventually had to instruct bailiffs to recover her costs and mine were finally paid in February 2011 - eight months after they were ordered. Even then, Hayden's new solicitors did not cough up any interest until I reminded them and then they short-changed me.
I want to hone in on this part of the story because, for the first time during our various hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice, I actually felt things might be going our way. I often think some in legal quarters may take a dim view of websites like mine because we try to expose things we believe to be bad and many times it involves injustices. However, Judge David Mackie QC seemed like a very fair man and I researched his background.
I discovered that the case which always stuck in his mind took place during the 1980s. It involved a personnel director (a war hero) who sought compensation after claiming he was unfairly dismissed. The man lost his claim and committed suicide. Sadly, his wife also took her own life. David Mackie, who was acting for the company, said the decision the court reached was perfectly legitimate in legal terms but the outcome had a deep personal impact on him.
Coincidentally, I lost my job with an oil company in 1980 and took them to an industrial tribunal. I had worked for them for almost 15 years and had received a merit increase only weeks before I was sacked for 'failing to reach the required standard'. So I went to court with what my barrister assured me was a cast iron case.
After eight hearings over as many months, I lost my case. I had a large box containing all the evidence to prove the company had dismissed me unfairly but I was not allowed to produce any of it to the court. As a result, I was very bitter. But I did not commit suicide. I spent the rest of my life fighting injustices, hence the main reason for this website.
The legal system may not like what I do but there are no accusations made on these pages that cannot be substantiated. And the strange thing is that some of the people I name and shame have already been 'punished' by the courts. But they merely ignore the courts' orders and carry on trading. What I do here will not change that but it may prevent other people becoming the victims of these despicable people and, if I can achieve that, I feel my efforts have been rewarded.
How the site is funded
Many hours go into producing and maintaining a website like this and the cost is largely borne by me. I do get a small amount of revenue (about $5 a week) from the Google AdWords panel you will see in the left-hand column on each page and you can help by clicking any of the links. Unfortunately, we have no control over the content of each advert so you may see some from the type of people we try to expose, e.g. private parking control contractors. Please feel free to click their links as many times as you like. They pay for each click and Name and Shame receives a small commission to continue the battle against corruption and dishonesty.
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"Many men stumble across the truth ... but most manage to pick themselves up and continue as if nothing had happened."
Winston S Churchill
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Wilham, Sidcup writes:
There are a growing number of people who feel the same as you about Cllr Craske. He must be damaging the conservative party in Bexley.