21 December (Part 1) - If it doesn’t look right…
It was in the dying days of British Telecom (now officially BT) just before
privatisation. International telephony with a few exceptions was automated only to
the major western democracies and computers used only for sending out the bills.
Possibly because no one else wanted to do
the job I found myself in charge of some ancient switching equipment and 1,300
staff working 24/7/365 shifts. To more easily get to grips with it all I moved my office and support
staff from the Headquarters building and we plonked ourselves inside the
exchange. How can you manage a place that cumbersome from afar?
After a while I noticed some odd things going on.
• Some staff had been given the wrong and more generous annual leave allocations. (It proved to be a reward for turning blind eyes.)
• Staff gambled and lost huge sums and didn’t seem to care.
• One on only £100 a week bought an almost new Rolls Royce.
• There were occasional fights among staff allegedly about money.
• Occasionally a phone would be left ringing and if I went to answer it might find
someone asking how he could pay for his phone call.
• As manager I would occasionally receive written allegations from overseas
alleging that spouses were engaged in extra-marital affairs with staff members
and one at least included documents to ‘prove’ it. They did no such thing but it
was one of the last pieces in the jig-saw. Some of the documents, complete with
staff ID numbers, had found their way to Zimbabwe and should never have strayed
outside British Telecom’s accounting system.
I’ll skip exactly how it was done but I set up a system which set an alarm and recorded the numbers if
it detected a call through the exchange that fell outside normal parameters and
gradually it built up a pattern. My bosses were not interested in my suspicions
but British Telecom was still loosely connected with the GPO and their
Investigation Department was still contracted to BT. I paid a secret visit to
them meeting up at dawn in a greasy spoon on the Gray’s Inn Road.
They did the necessary and 103 members of staff were convicted of fraud, some serving prison sentences.
I got a thorough grilling by the Chairman himself - he was keen to know why my
own bosses had directed me to look the other way - and the official report
estimated that £12 million had leaked into the hands of Rolls Royce dealers and the like.
If it quacks like a duck…
Forty years later I find myself wondering again.
• Bexley’s oldest and listed pub on Heron Hill comes tumbling down and Bexley Council turns a blind eye,
• The remains are left in a dangerous condition and Bexley Council doesn’t care.
It was left to Belvedere’s Labour Councillor Daniel Francis to make a report to the Health
& Safety Executive and Bexley Council did nothing to help.
• A monstrous carbuncle (© King Charles III) is built behind a property in Woolwich Road with many
trees destroyed and a small incursion made into Lesnes Abbey Woods. Despite the
concern expressed by Councillor Slaughter and others it is granted retrospective planning permission.
• The developer was
given an award at the Civic Centre.
• He is feted by one of his local Councillors, John Davey, while his ward
colleague and Planning Committee Chairman wisely stays away.
• The new Planning Chairman and his wife line up alongside the developer and his
extended family for a photo opportunity.
• Conservative Party candidates, Councillors and the current Planning Committee Chairman’s wife line up in the developer’s front
garden as part of their election campaign.
• A candidate waves her election leaflet alongside the developer inside his own front room!
• John Davey is persuaded not to object to a relevant Planning Application.
All of the foregoing has been reported on BiB over several years. Minor things individually perhaps but put them
together and it all looks a little murky. I am developing a sense of déjà vu and begin to understand why one of
the developer’s clan tried to run me off the A2016 with their sideways ramming manoeuvre.
And in case you were wondering, yes there is a link all the way back from
West Heath Road
to Heron Hill. Maybe when Christmas is over and done with the links can be revealed.
Note: The photograph was taken on 15th October 1980, in a
different telephone exchange and three years before the events described above took place.