Mr J Stuart
Direct Line: 01622 654413/654429/652304
request-339325-
Fax: 01622 652029
[email address]
E-mail: [Kent Police request email]
Date: 6 July 2016
FOI Ref: 16/06/669
Dear Mr Stuart,
Freedom of Information Request 16/06/669
I write in response to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA) received on 9 June 2016:
Where can a fraud upon the court be reported to in Kent .
How many council and court staff including judges have been reported to Kent Police for
committing a fraud upon the court.
What actions do you take when evidence is produced that the council and court are working
together to deprive people of their property.
Do you have a fraud hotline.
On 20 June 2016, you subsequently specified a date period from 2008-2016, or 2014-2016 if the
time limit is exceeded.
Response
Suspicion of fraud can be reported to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime
reporting centre, via the following website http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ or through the
following hotline 0300 123 2040.
Any reports made via Action Fraud are passed on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB)
which is overseen by the police force that leads on fraud for the UK – The City of London Police.
Each report will then be disseminated to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
The courts have their own internal investigations department (Judicial Conducts Investigations
Office) to deal with conduct/discipline issues of court staff and judges.
The question concerning how many council and court staff including judges has been reported to
Kent Police for committing a fraud upon the court has engaged an exemption under Section 12(2)
of the FOIA.
Section 12 provides an exemption from a public authority’s obligation to comply with a request for
information where the cost of compliance is estimated to exceed the appropriate limit. The
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 state
that the appropriate cost limit is 18 hours in the case of the Police Service.
The reason for this is that the system Kent Police operates to record fraud does not have a facility
to record the relevant NFIB classification codes. Crimes of fraud involving members of the council
and court staff would be recorded under the category “fraud by abuse of the position” which
would hold its own NFIB code. Unfortunately, as NFIB codes are not automatically recorded it is
not possible to isolate fraud reports specifically relating to that category. Therefore to even identify
any relevant cases would require a manual review of every single fraud report amounting to
Freedom of Information, Kent Police Headquarters,
This is available in
Sutton Road, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9BZ www.kent.police.uk
large print on request
thousands of reports per year. This is expected to take in excess of 18 hours of work, thus
engaging section 12 of the FOIA.
When applying this exemption, our duty under Section 16 would normally entail that we contact
you in order to assist you in refining your request so as to bring it within the cost limit, however, in
this case, we can see no reasonable way to do so.
Thank you for your interest in Kent Police. If you have any queries about your request or the
application of the FOIA generally, please contact this office quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
Debbie Potter
Freedom of Information Administrator
Kent Police : PSD FOI
Form 3540b rev Jan 2011 [erev 2/11] v1
Your right to appeal
We take our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act seriously but, if you feel your
request has not been properly handled or you are otherwise dissatisfied with the outcome of your
request, you have the right to appeal. We will conduct an internal review to investigate the matter
and endeavor to reply within 20 working days. If your appeal concerns the decision to apply an
exemption, it would assist the review if you would outline why you believe the exemption does not
apply.
You may lodge your appeal by writing to:
Freedom of Information
Kent Police Headquarters
Sutton Road,
Maidstone
Kent
ME15 9BZ
Or by e-mailing [Kent Police request email]
If you are still dissatisfied following our internal review, you have the right under section 50 of the
Act to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner who would normally expect you to have
exhausted the internal review procedure provided by Kent Police.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Kent Police : PSD FOI
Form 3540b rev Jan 2011 [erev 2/11] v1
