Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Hackney looters hit the jackpot

While their less skilled partners-in-crime are being banged up by the plod, two lucky Hackney looters have already walked away with jackpots worth a total of nearly £300K - and they get to keep their loot.

The lucky pair are Sue Primmer, former assistant chief executive, communications & consultation at Hackney Council, and Belinda Black, former corporate director (customer and corporate services), also of Hackney Council.

Sue is an exceptionally lucky lady. On a pay scale of £33,666 pa in 2009, she left the employ of the council, handbagging a severance package worth £106,603. Her position has since been filled, so the payoff could not have been attributable to redundancy and the lucky, independent-school-educated Primmer has gone on to work as marketing & communications director at Excelian, a company that says it "services niche vendor technologies".

Lucky looter Belinda fared even better. With her job title of corporate director (customer and corporate services), she took £45,211 from the council coffers for less than five months' work. Then, on leaving, she was paid an extra £135,462 as, says the council, "compensation for loss of office".

Belinda added to the pay dirt with another £6,438 in pension contribution to bring her total loot to £187,111. But, not content with this, she is extending her looting career as "interim director" for "customer services and transactions" at nearby Newham council.

This is the official, incidentally, who had to apologise last summer for Hackney call-centres telling enquirers that no Conservative candidate was standing in the borough's mayoral election, even though Andrew Boff, a Boris Johnson aide, was standing for the Tories. Her incompetence, though, is not reflected in her ability to feather her own nest.

And all of this goes to show that, if you want to do a really professional job of looting, don't bother breaking shop windows. That is soooooo naff. Get yourself on the council payroll and do it from inside the gaff with an ID pass hanging from your lovely neck.

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