• A Tale of Scoundrels and Fred Karno’s Circus Fire Brigade;

          • The Recruit ‘Model’- A Foot Pad-Common Thief-Fraudster;

• A Barbarian – A Facilitator- and Common Racist Hooligan;

• A Servant of his Masters –  Copy Cat Fraudsters and Thieves;

• Kenny Who? The Missing Chief Fire Officer;

•  Expectations- Mr.Mason & A Lancashire Pensioner;

• Placing Criminal Information before the Chief Constable;

• Inevitability – A Ministerial or Independent Judicial Inquiry?

In the continuum of this Journey of Truth the Morning Bugler continues its expose of the footpads, chancers, and common thieves employed by the People of Lancashire at the Lancashire FRS who have managed with the supreme ease, because of the total failure of political accountability by the ruling Labour/LibDem coalition at County Hall, to finally destroy the last vestiges of credibility and good name with which, once upon a time, Lancashire led the the UK Fire Service world , nay indeed the universal Fire Service world…

As with all good tales it begins with the immortal words…

Once upon a time in a land faraway there live a fair minded and simple people…

They were very reassured in their daily lives that they were safe from harm.

Indeed, they had one of the best Fire Brigades in the land. Often the fire engines could be seen rushing hither and thither from their stations, bells clanging, and brasses all agleam.

Truly there were many Citizens and grateful maidens who could testify to the heroism of the Firefighters as they were snatched from certain death by their strong arms.

The Fire Chief with his great and goodly had his headquarters  in the local village of Preston, where on public occasions, there was much pomp and circumstance which included the Fire Brigade.

Though by and large a mainly a tranquil life the Firefighters from time to time would grow restless and begin to question those placed in authority over them but as ever the bleating of these ‘Sheeple’ could be ignored.

Then one day the old Fire Chief retired and from a far off land another one came to take his place…his name was Karno, ‘Fred K’ to be precise.

When, from time to time, travellers came from this far off land they often carried disturbing tales about ‘Fred K’.

‘Fred K’ it seemed was not all that he appeared. It seems that whilst serving his Apprenticeship ‘Fred K’ had learned virtually every trick in the book.

That is not to say that these were ‘good’ nor ‘kindly’ tricks for the benefit of others, but these tricks seemed to benefit ‘Fred’ exclusively.

It also seemed that far from rescuing maidens from distress Fred K had a disturbing habit of placing their virtue on display in public places…in fact it was due to this and other clowning antics that gradually his Brigade came to be known as the Fred Karno Circus Fire Brigade, or if you prefer the ‘Fun Factory’.

‘Fred K’ was not above breaking things so that he and his splendid ruffians could then set about expensively ‘fixing’ them for the  local yokels who seemed not to notice the expenditure of their hard earned taxes.

To help him ‘Fred K’ recruited, from these far off lands, a host of unsavoury characters and scoundrel toadies to run his ‘Circus’ and to ‘fix’ things they had yet to break.

He and they dressed themselves in much finery paid for by the taxes of the locally oppressed and restless artisans and such was their self-esteem that they paid themselves handsomely, though stingy ‘Fred K’, it was said, rarely paid his round at the local hostelry.

Why should he bother when he had such a motely crew of sycophantic well paid ner’ do wells to tend to and cover up all his odd appetites and the ‘forgetfulness’ of his criminal record?

They also covered themselves with great pretensions and conventions whilst strutting hither and thither and regularly patted each other on the back and shaking each others hands and even had grand ceremonies where they awarded each other medals and baubles and grandiose titles which truly made them feel even greater and grander…

Because they ran their own Treasury, which they collected from everyone including the poor and needy, and because they gave little accounting for the money to those who they  guffawed about behind their backs as ‘politicians’,  no one could actually see what they were doing in their secret counting houses.

They regularly congratulated themselves in this Aladdin’s Cave into which they had fallen and such was their self  infatuation with their own efficiency that they decided that they should reward themselves with even larger bags of gold coins.

Indeed there was little that they could not do because the Keeper of the Treasury was a friend of Fred’s, another clown, called David O’Toole.

Such was Fred K and D.O’T’s power that David readily admitted that he regularly stole gold coins from the Treasury and defied anyone to do anything about it…

By now the local Sheeple and their lazy ‘politicians’ in sleepy hollow had grown so accustomed to the clowning antics of Fred K and D.O’T’s that they all joined in the laughter and general joviality  when anyone objected or protested at this wanton thieving misbehaviour.

Indeed they all proceeded at the ‘Fun Factory’  to give themselves even more gold coins from D.O’T’s Treasury, giggling and jingling their coins, as they all made their way to the local banks…

Even the Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom, Sire Pickles, knew of their thieving but because they knew how to speak to him whilst touching their forelocks and shaking his hand with a funny kind of silly sloppy handshakes they all lived happily ever after in rich sleepy hollow.

All the while sharing jokes about the fools and other knaves under their control who they were supposed to be in charge of, but they laughed especially hard about the ‘politicians’, Sheeple, and those who vainly complained about them…

These jolly thugs; their lazy and corrupt  ‘politicians’, their goat like magistrates and judges, and their  corrupt constable plods had some very amusing ‘standards’ which they seem to apply randomly as the mood took them to different Citizens at different times and places with mirth unlimited,  it was after all the ‘Fun Factory’.

Collectively they all lived by the same dictum. A mantra which they all regularly chanted in secret conclave in Aladdin’s Cave … Treat others as I have already treated myself ! But especially those in that old craft, the Lamplighters.

Fred Karno, it seems, was not alone when it came to clowning and making fools of the local ‘politicians’ and Sheeple.

But in the manner of all things great and small their antics have a beginning, a middle, and now an end, much to the relief of the hard pressed workers and their taxes who did not find this skulduggery amusing at all but who were determined that they would one day call these thieves and vagabonds to account.

In this and other local Palatines there were, as might be expected, many scoundrels, liars, cheats, and fraudsters of common note and aspect, but notably fewer when they all came to work for ‘Fred K’ and D.O’T who ensured that their recruits ‘modelled’ the qualities of a Foot Pad, Common Thief, and Fraudster who had come to their notice and whose cheek and gall they so admired in the local village of Preston.

And so in time this motley crew grew to include:

A Barbarian and Common Racist Hooligan;

A Servant of his Master –  Copy Cat Fraudster and Thief;

A Legal Vulture; Amateur Politician; and Opportunist;

A Master liar, Cheat , and Fraudster;

A Politician and  Master Treasury Fraudster:

A laughing boy called ‘Fred K’ Holland the Master Clown; Master of Mirth; and, without equal, the Master Fraudster;

A bad tempered, racist, bewigged, Judge afflicted with his ‘Nelson’s Eye’ and ears.

But they did not all live happily after because their infamy was spreading throughout the land, and to other lands very far away, whose peoples all laughed heartily amid much scornful finger pointing and jollity…

This Foot Pad and Common Thief, appropriately named Mr.Mason, has been dubbed Preston’s most despicable man, though some might not agree.

At Xmas time in 2014 within days of being released from his fourth prison sentence for charity thefts, Mr.Mason was, once more, caught using special cutters to steal from a charity box for St Ormond Street Hospital and other hospice charity tins strapped down in shops in Preston, Burnley, and a doctor’s surgery.

He was jailed for a fifth time for all these thefts which included stealing Poppy Appeal tins on the day the country prepared to hold a two minute silence for Armistice Day.

In all Mr. Mason committed 100 thefts to feed his well-documented drug addiction.

The Crown Prosecution Service(CPS) and the prosecuting Police described him as ‘callous, despicable, and beneath contempt’, adding that he had ‘taken advantage of the goodwill of his local communities’, and yet he had not physically harmed or threatened anyone, nor did he hold a position of Public trust which he abused.

Mr. Mason was given 28 days in jail by Pennine magistrates.

In this case this man was recognised for what he clearly was, a criminal and a common thief.

He was routinely investigated by the Police, arrested, and then arraigned and charged under the direction of  the CPS with his offences.

Subsequently in Court Mr. Mason was adjudged on the prima facie evidence presented to be clearly guilty and was found to be so.

The Bugler asks should we have pity or compassion for Mr. Mason, and if so on what grounds?

What should be considered in mitigation, if anything?

Who had he harmed other than himself? Had he, for example,  breached the trust of a Public office which required honesty of purpose when using, guarding, and protecting Public funds?

Mr.Mason’s minimal punishment justly reflected and recognised in the eyes of decent Magistrates the moral poverty of his situation in which he had allowed himself to fall from grace, but nevertheless Justice was done, and seen to be done.

It is often forgotten that these criminal laws do not belong to the State; the Judiciary; the CPS; nor the Police.

They belong to the Citizens of the State and it is they who require that the same Standards of Justice and procedure are implemented, applied impartially and even handedly, when the prima facie evidence of criminality in which, ‘advantage of the goodwill of the local communities’ and/or a breach of trust in Public office, has clearly occurred.

In the cases which follow, when prima facie evidence has already been  presented publicly against individual Citizens, all holding Public Office, the natural expectation in the application of Justice is that regardless of their status or Public appointment, the Citizens’ Law will be followed to its natural conclusion and, where necessary in the case of those in Public office that this evidence be placed in Court before their fellow Citizens, a Jury of their Peers, for a determination of their guilt or innocence because they may well have breached the Public’s trust in their integrity.

Even though one of life’s unfortunates Mr. Mason, once more a  Freeman, having paid his price to the communities he took ‘advantage of’, has the right to expect that the due processes which were rightly laid against him, will and must, be laid against others for similar offences of theft and Public fraud.

However, Mason has one great disadvantage in his humble and sad life, which was that if he had had the word ‘Free’ as a syntax before his name perhaps he might never have ended up in jail in the first place?

There is little doubt that to apply any standard less than equal is to simply confirm the application of dual standards an implicit act which states and confirms that some Citizens are clearly more equal than others and thus above the Law.

When Mr.Mason was released from prison he would, once more, be released into the tender care of the local Probation Service where the Probation Officers involved would in the past have be answerable to the likes of its Head of Human Resources Brendan Joseph Hamilton from Heaton in Bolton, the well-known LFRS Barbarian and Common Hooligan.

The Greater Manchester Probation Trust had earlier placed a sacred trust in Hamilton which was to reflect his commitment to equal opportunities with the promise that he treat all employees, and potential employees, fairly and considerately whilst protecting them from discrimination and guaranteeing their equality of treatment.

But Hamilton did none of these things, in fact , he was the very antitheses of these sacred  trusts placed on him. On a daily basis he continued the regime, which he set up, of bullying, harassment, and the sexually terrorising the staff under his jurisdiction.

So much so in fact that eventually his sexual terrorism was challenged and his superiors in the Manchester Probation Trust in complicity with him decided that he must leave, or be sacked, though clutching his transferable pension, as off he went.

So he left, as we now have seen, to terrorise another day, only this time with the LFRS to which, whilst slipping in under the backdoor (so much for Equal Opportunities Law), bringing with him even more ‘accomplishments’ of barbarism and hooliganism to his task which not only included the immediate staff under his jurisdiction but now extended to the harassment and public humiliation of honourable disabled Fire Service Veterans, their families, and their reputations.

The Reader will recall it was Hamilton who at an early point  gave the nod to his fellow Lamplighters who were also disabled Fire Service Veterans which ensured that they did not have to pay back any ‘overpayments’ which they had erroneously received unlike those who were not his Brethren and where an insistence was made that all their so called ‘overpayments’ were to be retrieved using the Courts if necessary, which in fact the LFRS did.

Hamilton thus established his ‘loyalty’ and ‘dual standard’ credentials at an early point for his Master, Holland.

But, like his Master Holland, he brought not only his accomplished obnoxious terrorising ‘standards’, but his particular brand of sexual predation a ‘human’ element intrinsic to his very nature which incorporates the beliefs of the Lamplighter organisation of which he is a loyal member and from whom he brought the greatest social crime of all, racism.

Once more his knew that his duty was to encourage and build fair play, equal opportunity for all, and diversity, treating all under his management with the principles of Equality but in the perversion which was by now guiding his way of life, he did not.

He also knew these principles, enshrined in European law and common morality, because it was his job to know these sacred principles which were to be driven forward by him and his Master Holland from the very top of the LFRS organisation.

A shared responsibility which included all those politically accountable, but who throughout this reign of terror, simply turned a blind eye. Those clearly responsible knew of Hamilton’s antecedents, his predilections, and his history before he ‘arrived’ at the LFRS.

Indeed, well knowing these appalling traits, it was Warren, Holland, O’Toole, and Winterbottom who ‘recruited’ him via the Lancashire Probation Service at Garstang Road Preston and arranged to save him ‘from his Lamplighters distress’.

Before these laws came, and long after they will go, history will record Hamilton’s complete lack of moral compass and similarly none in the likes of  Warren, Holland, O’Toole, and Winterbottom who ‘appointed’ him and then failed to ‘control’ their personal ‘Rottweiler’.

Fair play ranks with decency both in and out of the work place. It is an attitude of mind shaped by the person’s civilised upbringing, or lack of it. It is precisely because of the Hamilton’s of this life and his Masters that it is unfortunately necessary for a civilised society to have such equality laws. Such laws are simply an inverse tribute to their bigotry and discrimination.

Who can know, except the victims, of Hamilton’s bullying brutality and his tirades of anger just what it was like to work under this barbarian and racist hooligan? It is not how a judge, jury, or tribunal may view Hamilton’s excesses which counts, but only the views of the victims and their perception of the daily grinding horror of attempting to work to any standard under such a creature of the night.

Every human being has their breaking point, some are weaker than others, and it is upon the weak that such creatures like the Hamilton’s  prey, minute by minute, hour by stressful hour, day in and month out. The Chinese torture of the drip on the forehead.

But to what purpose?

Was this to satisfy Hamilton’s pure personal sadism? Was his ultimate gaol of ‘success’ to drive an innocent to take their own life under his lash of inhumanity? Was that what Hamilton actually existed for? Is that his final solution and accomplishment  in one who was so patently and consistently disturbed?

Why was he allowed to run riot and out of control ? Who is responsible for this barbarism and inhumanity? It can only be those with prior knowledge who arranged, condoned, and authorised his excesses.

So what finally brought Hamilton’s downfall? His own hand, or rather mouth, as usual…

The facts are as you might expect vague but the come from several different reliable sources each containing the same grains of truth. Though as ever the Bugler is happy to retract its speculation and publish the actual facts if they are made officially made known to the Bugler in a Press Statement from the LFRS Press Spokesman Mr. J. Taylor.

There is substantial anecdotal evidence from disabled Fire Service Veterans that  Hamilton was in the bad habit of wandering into the Occupational Health Department  and accessing personal Doctor’s medical records which he subsequently used in premedical discharge interviews to the pension detriment of individual Firefighter.

It was put to the Bugler by several disabled FSVs that they felt they had been the subject of attempted blackmail about their actual physical condition during these interviews which should hardly surprise anyone who knows Hamilton.

Last year a new female Nurse/Practitioner was engaged at the Occupational Health Department. It seems like many a new broom she was intent, as it has been put, in tightening up security procedures within the department especially those concerning  access to extremely sensitive medical records.

Knowing Hamilton as the Reader now knows his modus operandii it seems inevitable that a confrontation would occur between himself and this new N/P but there was also another human factor involved. It is reported that this professional lady was like the Bugler from a specific ethnic group and when the inevitable confrontation occurred over

access Hamilton apparently used both abusive and ethnic expletives when as normal, for him, he became frustrated.

Only this time, it seems, he picked on the wrong person and after this fracas led to the lodging of a formal Complaint he found himself promptly escorted from the LFRS SHQ under formal suspension.

One can hardly be surprised…

Why, when these matters reached this zenith of barbarity and racism did CFO Kenny not have the courage to have the Police arrest Hamilton for common threatening racialist misbehaviour ~ a hate crime?

Why did he and those politically responsible shirk this duty to protect the innocent when it is now quite clear from Kenny’s failure to act positively that the only interest he was serving was in serving and protecting the prima facie guilty Hamilton?

Was it because Hamilton held many of the secrets on those, including the incumbent CFO Kenny, whom he could blackmail when or if the day ever came, as come it must, when ‘they’ decided that at the first opportunity he presented to them that Hamilton he had served his purposes and he should be disposed of?

Was he not, as the authorities described Mr. Mason, a ‘callous, despicable and beneath contempt character’ holding Public office, or was it because they knew of Hamilton’s threat to them “you do not know how high I go” and that in turn he could and will threaten their security of tenure in Public office if they present him with his opportunity?

Who should stand in the dock with Hamilton?

The Bugler asks should we have pity or compassion, and if so for whom?

What should be considered in mitigation, if anything?

What would rogue Mr.Mason’s thought be in this situation?

Should not Hamilton been have been arrested, investigated, and then in conjunction with the CPS be arraigned and charged with common criminality in which he had actually harmed those under his control in what was a clearly a racially inspired verbal attack?

In the event this has not happened.Why not? What are the LFRS hiding from once more? Their Public responsibility?

Corruption will inevitably seep and weep through their fingers no matter what they might do to prevent its escape to scrutiny. But then the LFRS are not very practiced in either transparency, honesty, or accountability as their record of failure demonstrates.

Is this the usual demonstration that when it comes to the Lamplighters and their Brethren’s regularly aberrant Public misbehaviour  that those in authority, and of the same ilk, have agreed and determined that they will apply dual standards to Hamilton, namely that he is above the law?

One wonders what Mr. Mason’s thoughts on this demonstration of bias, partiality, and downright corruption might be?

In December 2014 the Bugler brought the world the news that Hamilton had been suspended and ejected from the LFRS SHQ.

It is interesting to note that it was over six weeks before Lancashire Evening Post the official voice of the Lancashire Lamplighters thought to publish an article simply rehearsing the facts the world at large already knew. Go here.

The Bugler should record that Hamilton has never been a member of the uniformed Fire Service and for this small mercy we must all remain thankful as indeed Hamilton should  because about 5 minutes of a real Fire Station Watch would have corrected his views and attitudes…

By publishing the significant facts of Hamilton’s case, albeit late, the LEP could only have done so because they also knew a ‘solution’ to the Hamilton debacle had been cobbled together over the Xmas and New Year period.

One can only speculate what occurred during this fraught period for the Lamplighter Brethren during Hamilton’s imminent career demise especially those under direct threat of exposure from the ‘insurance policies’ Hamilton would most certainly have laid up for his next rainy day.

Would Hamilton be rescued from the distress of his own making, handed his P45 (National Employment Card) and once more clutching his transferable pension would he be placed in his next employment ‘opportunity’ which the Lamplighters had ‘found’ for him, free to rampage and bully once more.

Or would he be thrown to to the wolves and exposed to the full panoply of the law as Mr.Mason had been? For clearly Hamilton was nothing more nor less than a common criminal and thug?

Because of the potential of the Bugler’s and other national media scrutiny of their future antics a more measured approach would be required by Hamilton’s Masters because Hamilton has a notoriously short fuse and might well be prepared, if the ‘solution’ did not meet his requirements, to ‘blow the whistle’ (how do the Lamplighters know he has not already done so?)

To expose Hamilton and his antics to the Police would inevitably expose those others he holds under threat and their dubious activities of which he retains both documentary and anecdotal evidence.

This could not be allowed to happen so in the application of their usual double and duplicitous ‘standards’ Hamilton’s Masters have opted for the gradualist approach.

This involves a media ‘interest’ cooling off period followed by a white wash charade of an internal ‘disciplinary’ hearing in the vain hope that the ‘natives’ hurt feelings may be ameliorated followed by Hamilton’s resignation because a dismissal for gross misconduct would freeze his pension and completely end his career and Hamilton would not be too keen on that idea.

Is the cover up from scrutiny of Hamilton’s future already in place. Indeed it is. Go Here.

The Bugler has not received a response to its enquiries which were apparently placed before Warren to answer…

So will he get away with his terrorism at the LFRS? Almost certainly?

Unless of course there is a person or persons of decent moral courage at the LFRS who have suffered under Hamilton terrorism and can foresee that unless he is finally stopped he will simply move on to pastures new filled with more innocent sheeple to terrorise.

But do these individuals have the moral courage to prevent harm to others the like of which they themselves have suffered? It is upon their action or inaction which the Public will also make a judgment.

One can only conclude that if they fail in their resolution then perhaps they deserved the treatment Hamilton meted out to them?

Time alone will tell.

In any event the Bugler will follow Hamilton to his new ‘employment’ if only to prevent him from claiming a final fatal victim of his particularly warped bestiality…

And then there is Mr. Lee Gardiner from Warrington in Cheshire the LFRS Data Protection and Information Manager a true stonewalling servant of his master; a copy cat fraudster and another common thief, as once more we watch the LFRS corporate structure collapse in a meltdown of  putrid corruption which continues to smear the good names of all those who have the misfortune to work for the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service.

Is this another case of physician first heal (Rescue) thyself?

Mr. Nigel Wakefield, who was himself a replacement Data Protection and Information Officer  and who had been ‘recruited’ from the Lancashire Police, was the third person the Bugler had had contact with from an early point in this pension debacle.

After a short time of stonewalling he became unhappy and sought opportunities elsewhere and Gardner was ‘recruited’ to the LFRS in the Autumn of 2010. His brief from his Masters, but most particularly from Warren, was to continue the stonewalling to deny all disabled Fire Service Veterans in Lancashire access to their  Personal Record Files(PRF) which he did successfully up to the present in complicit partnership with Mr. Harold the in-house solicitor.

Examples of Gardiner’s ‘work’ are to be found in The Journey of Truth Chapter 4 as he smirkingly and continuously obstructs disabled FSV-RRB attempts to obtain his PRFs for the last 4 years all of which were during the Gardiner’s tenure of office which as we shall see is rapidly coming to a terminal conclusion.

But Gardiner has a problem. In his arrogance he thinks that all disabled Fire Service Veterans are rather stupid like himself and lack courage and willful steadfastness. He will be wrong… Go Here.

The purpose of this blanket denial and cover up was to ensure that the disabled FSV’s did not acquire their PRFs where they would find no pension records or indeed matching records from which they would know from their own private records that they had positively informed the LFRS of DWP benefit changes which affected their pension entitlements.

This cover up allowed Warren and all the senior management involved  including the politicians of the LFRS Fire Authority to claim, quite wrongly, that the pension debacle was all the fault of the disabled FSVs when quite clearly their PRFs would show that the LFRS had failed to keep and maintain the Statutory pension records they were required to keep, including notification by individual disabled FSVs of significant DWP benefit changes.

This was deceit on a corporate scale for which Warren was almost exclusively responsible though he was always cunning enough, as secret emails show, to protect himself from criticism by sharing with the likes of O’Toole, Winterbottom, and Holland suitably  ‘sanitised’ and ‘spun’  information.

Responsibility, however, still rests with the ‘ignorant’ politicians and the Chief Fire Officer of the day the former who have a civic duty to ensure that their ‘officers’ are consistently telling them the truth…

Nevertheless Warren’s office boy Gardner was a willing ‘troop’, so willing in fact that in the end such was his brass necked stone walling that he awoke Information Commissioner Graham much against the wishes of LFRS’s ‘man’ on the ICO inside Andrew White, Group Manager, who in a preconceived charade sent a team to the LFRS to lay the law down concerning the release of these PRFs. But such was Gardner’s awareness of this charade and his protection by Warren that the LFRS simply chose to ignore Commissioner Graham, and who can blame them?  

Gardner was not noted for his industriousness in his fat salary post, where  except for the 5% of the time he actually spent on his ‘work’, he spent  95% of his remaining time in an open plan office everyday brazenly playing Minesweeper on his iPad…

That was a foolish attitude born of sheer arrogance which was later to prove  a serious error of what he laughingly describes as judgement.

One supposes that this confirms two things firstly that Gardiner’s post ought to be done away and the Public money put to essential front line service use, and secondly, how Gardiner viewed his own unassailability in Masonic job protection terms.

Perhaps he is another like Hamilton who cared to think and demonstrate …’you do not know how high I go’…Well of course this means that that gallows will certainly have to be built that much higher and indeed expanded with a greater number of trapdoors…

Gardiner must never have read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar  (in terms of Warren) which contains the quote by Ceasar …’et tu Brute’…perhaps he will have time in prison to catch up on his reading?

Gardiner could not have been very good at this Minesweeper game either because as we shall see he walked straight into a minefield controlled by his loving and loyal Master, Et Tu Brute Warren.

About now it surely must cross many of Warren’s sycophantic chums minds that they are really not safe when he is around because they can be certain he will be the last one to the bottom of the gallows steps…after them.

For some time rumours had been circulating about Gardiner’s mileage claims in which it appears he was falsely claiming mileage to the new Regional Fire Control Centre in Warrington which was quite handy for him because of his private address in Warrington.

Old loyalties of decency die hard in the old real Fire Service and thus the Bugler was able to make a quick check  to confirm that Gardiner had no role whatsoever in respect of association with or responsibility for the new Regional Fire Control and therefore he had no legitimacy in any shape or form for claiming mileage for official journeys to or from there.

Gardiner’s mileage claims are therefore simple criminality and more specifically are prima facie offences under Sections 3 and/or 4 of the Fraud Act 1981 in that Gardiner, in a Copy Cat Act of common theft, like at least one of his ‘bosses’, namely County Councillor David O’Toole, has made similar false self enrichment mileage claims from the public purse whilst in remaining in public office.

For the Fraud Act 2006, Go Here.

In the ‘philosophy’ of the Gardiners of this world which is that they may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb we will find, no doubt, as we all dig deeper into the cesspit of Hamilton; Gardiner; Warren; Holland ; O’Toole’s and Winterbottom’s  worlds that we shall find that they have all been dipping their fingers into this and other public purses as well.

They simply cannot and could not resist the temptation and as the Bugler has oft repeated and will repeat again…total power corrupts totally.

Why else, well defended by Gardiner, have the LFRS along with their ‘associate’ Andrew White at the Information Commissioner’s Officer resolutely stone walled and refused to release all O’Tooles and Holland’s LFRS reimbursement and subsistence claims for public accountability?

Time will demonstrate that several, if not all of them, ought to be in jail right now…

The problem with the Gardiners et al of this world is that they are too clever by half, or they think they are.

These gangsters when they found themselves in the Aladdin’s Cave of the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service finances thought that there was no one as clever as they and that they could pull all the old tricks of theft without anyone really noticing because they thought all Firefighters and the existing non-uniformed staff were really rather stupid.

Actually they are far from stupid but it never crosses the ‘minds’ of Gardiner et al that there was never a trick he and they could pull that the Fire Service had never seen attempted before, and frankly with more brains, whilst remembering that the ‘old’ Brigade in the main employed people of high integrity and the most profound decent honesty, values which Holland, Gardiner et al would not recognise even if it was stapled to their protruding foreheads…

So their Mr. Gardiner ever the opportunist thought he would pull the oldest chestnut off the tree.

In this hypothesis of theft he would, every day in his mileage claims, without claiming the mileage travel from his home address to the North West Regional Fire Control, then claim the remaining journey from Control to Service HQ and back as though on official duty.

This is a round trip, according to the AA Mileage calculator which the LCC/LFRS use on reimbursable  journey calculation as we well know when previously looking at O’Toole’s fraudulent claims of some, in the case of Gardiner’s return journey, 73 miles @ 0.45 per mile over an employment period of approximately 4.5 years which amounts to in the region of £38,434.50.

This compares favourably with his Master O’Toole’s equally fraudulent claim over 13+ year period of some £42,106.64 which when give the ‘Mason Test’ amounts to a considerable number of (self)charity boxes which they both stole, does it not?

A grand total of fraud at this very early stage of £80,541.14 which the Labour and LibDem leadership of the LCC seem markedly disinterested in if one is to judge by their lack of response when the Morning Bugler highlights these issues in its columns and at the same time sends direct quotes from the facts to the Leaders suites at County Hall.

But of course as we all shall see when finally the full expenses records are revealed and then examined at some length by the District Auditor who will simply confirm that this is just the tip of a suppurating iceberg of corruption.

All this as ever raises some further intriguing questions in the processing and authorisation of Gardiner’s mileage claim.

Who for example was Gardiner’s line manager for these functions?

A line manager over this period of time who could not deny that he did not know of this blatant fraud because he signed it off on a monthly basis for payment? 

Surely this line manager must have been engaged in a similar fraud himself and thus in a scandalously complicit conspiracy with Gardiner they systematically defrauded the public purse and its Taxpayers?

The functions of checking all mileage/subsistence claims is usually a routine matter after the distance from home address to base has been established, agreed, and authorised by the Authority and of course confirms the actual distance involved, give or take a few metres, given the accuracy of today’s technology. The first and last journey of a ‘tour of duty’ is not usually claimable.

In addition the distance between the claimant’s base and other official addresses, for example between Fire Stations, Training Centres and remote Control Rooms outside the Authority’s official boundaries have usually already been determined by the Authority to ensure false claims do not arise.

When a reimbursement claim form is submitted for mileage /subsistence the claimant states and signs that his/her claim truly reflects that their expenditure has been necessarily incurred in the pursuit of their official duties.

If that is not so then this first statement of claim is of course the first fraudulent step in a false claim.

Normally the first check step is accountancy. Was the claimant on duty on the claimed dates and as far as can be determined actually visited the locations on official duty which included attending operational incidents? Are the basic mathematics correct.?

At this point the claim is normally forwarded to the claimant’s line manager for authorisation of payment but if there are ‘disparities’ regarding the claim it is first discussed with the claimant and if ‘uncertainties’ continue then privately with the line manager.

Regularly for example O’Toole’s claims were challenged but because he exhibited such an obnoxious attitude, as it was put to the Bugler, the clerks usually in the end passed the claim for authorisation simply because the unpleasantness was not worth their job.

This bluster and boorishness is a well developed technique with common thieves regardless of who they are or what they are stealing, or intend to steal. Five years on the Parole Board taught the Editor of the Bugler many valuable lessons in this respect.

It seems in Gardiner’s case that his line manager was either Hamilton or Warren though this is uncertain at this point.

However it seems likely that Gardiner’s false claims were picked up by Ms. Fawcett, Hamilton’s temporary replacement, who promptly reported this fraud to either Warren and/or a senior uniformed principle officer because we can be certain that under the LFRS disciplinary code a Class 3 offence which warrants immediate suspension like this case simply confirms the extent and seriousness of the fraudulence by Gardiner. A suspension which requires immediate implementation by a senior uniformed officer of at least Area Manager (Formerly Divisional Officer rank).

There can be no doubt that Warren will have been fully involved in all this procedure and no doubt by now have written to Gardiner formally suspending him though what Warren actually knew of Gardiner’s activities will no doubt emerge in time as corruption continues to seep through his fingers in this, his second ‘et to Brute’ act.

One wonders where all the £10 Statutory payments made under the FOIA and the DPA went because without taking any action Gardiner refused to pay them back to disabled Fire Service Veterans?

And then there is the intriguing question of the ‘Mason Test’ and how that is applied by Chief Fire Officer Kenny and what his role, and surely the role of the Police, are likely to be in all this latest debacle, or indeed if the Taxpayers of Lancashire are fortunate, his involvement…

And arising from Kenny’s posture, or lack of it, there are the Public and Taxpayers’ of Lancashire’s expectations…

But there remains an increasing problem for Kenny who now has potentially two whistle-blowers inside his castle. Who, if they are as cunning as the Public would expect them to be will have collected ‘insurance secrets’ against their corrupt leaders for just such rainy days.

One wonders if Kenny figures on their ‘insurance’ list?

The first question which arises is should Mr. Christopher Kenny the incumbent Chief Fire Officer be illuminated in this Gallery of Rogues?

Let the Taxpayers of Lancashire be the judge of that.

That is a difficult question to answer because try as it may the Bugler, since Kenny’s appointment, has been unable to detect the hand of a new leader on the tiller of a directionless LFRS.

But firstly the Readership need to know what his Fire Service antecedents were and why he ended up in Lancashire?

Next, for the busy Taxpayers and Citizens of Lancashire and indeed the Bugler’s extensive international readership, a small summary of Kenny’s background which is all rather chummy is provided on the LFRS website but his Service life before Lancashire began in Merseyside where a more detailed study is warranted for any public servant.

Kenny’s moral compass, which seems to have been somewhat deflected of late by that most common of metals, money, was provided for in his early days by the De La Salle Brothers in Liverpool who specialised in the education of Roman Catholic boys from rather errant neighbourhoods.

He lives in Aughton Ormskirk Lancashire quite close to an errant County Councillor O’Toole who was instrumental in making Kenny’s appointment.

An appointment which rather raised a few eyebrows but to which the Bugler will return shortly…

Anecdotal evidence, or as the ever reliable Fire Service ‘grapevine’ has it, Kenny was unhappy in Merseyside.

Merseyside FRS, depending on your point of view, has a well-deserved reputation for fighting for its human and democratic rights, and to stem these ‘uppity’ thoughts of freedom the political autocracy, usually perversely all poachers turned gamekeepers themselves, appointed a series of Chief Fire Officers who ranged from the bizarre, to the greedy, and then finally to the profoundly stupid.

While the remainder of the UK Fire Service under Prescott and his silly wild eyed acolyte Raynsford was being marching leeming like over the cliffs of destruction, aided and abetted by the FBU, the Merseyside FRS was in a continuous state of turmoil and revolt split cleanly into two camps, the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, with the ‘officer’ corps in the ‘them’.

It should be said that there was a total lack of moral fibre on the part of all senior ranks in Merseyside FRS in persuading  this series of transitory extreme right wing ‘Chiefs’ that there was a better way, a more human way.

But perversity ruled the day and internal industrial relations went from revolt into everyday war.

It was from this misty battlefield of back stabbing that Kenny sought refuge in Lancashire with the post of Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention promptly disappearing into academia whilst making little or no contribution to Lancashire.

It was said, and continues to be said, that in Merseyside the ‘troops’ would not speak to or obey Kenny’s orders and according to them that he was rather an invertebrate though they did not put it quite like that.

The rumour mill in Lancashire informs the Bugler that Kenny was ‘recruited’ by his old born again Christian chum Paul Richardson the then Deputy Chief who undoubtedly regrets his Christian act to this very day.

As we shall see the LFRS begins to look more like the Roman Forum every day where it appears there are more ‘et tus’ than ‘Brutes’.

When Holland left for more speculative hunting grounds, in every sense of those words, and the Chief’s vacancy was advertised and if a ‘local’ boy was to be appointed it would naturally fall to Richardson who was not only senior in rank to Kenny, but who by this time on his second journey to academia, had acquired the all essential degree of the new generation, having failed the first time around.

In the event Kenny was appointed Chief, in effect jumping up two ranks including over his caring chum Richardson who promptly retired the following week in great umbrage and embarrassment.

It is said that all is fair in love and war but does that now include in the LFRS, corruption which includes a salary scale inducement for the Chief’s appointment?

Readers may recall that when Holland ‘retired’ he rehired himself the following day at half his original salary thus ‘saving’, he publicly stated, the Fire Authority and the public purse a huge amount of public money, but forgetting to inform the elected political clowns at the Fire Authority that he had just walked away with a £400+ pension in the covert process.

Of course they were all enthused by this great saving because not only were they saving the public purse but they were retaining the best Fire Chief in Christendom, or confidence trickster.

As the man in the Lancashire street would put it ‘where there is no sense there is no feeling’…

It was against this back drop that O’Toole appointed Kenny on this Holland half salary the Bugler commenting at the time… “Kenny was reported on a mere £75k, where

ambition seems to have overwhelmed his sense of personal worth given this stall trader’s price, though some under his ‘command’ argue that he is more of a ‘Pound Land’ man.

In 2014 in just 6 months later it seems the league table at the trough has been reversed with Kenny quoted as £150-154k; Warren as £95-99K; Mattinson as £95-99k.”.

All of this sleight of hand which was a deliberate attempt by O’Toole to deceive and mislead the Elected Members of the Fire Authority on the ‘massive’ saving Holland had made on the Public Purse were quietly reversed 6 months later by the doubling of Kenny’s salary which included a 7% pay increase as well.

All of which was carried on out of sight of the Fire Authority Committee. Not that they would have noticed in any event because that would have required them to be awakened from their perpetual supine stupor.

Regardless of these obvious shenanigans, which the corrupt O’Toole would later explain away by saying that ‘Kenny was the best candidate on the day’ the Bugler, cynicised by these types of manoeuvers over many decades, simply regards these ‘surprises’ as confirming yet again that when the Freemasons decide that you have had your day and carried out their agenda, which invariably includes promoting and advancing their incompetent Brethren well above their level of skills it is time for the like of Richardson to take his leave and he did.

Richardson would surely understand that this is the price that one pays for selling his soul for promotion, and as the crisis at the LFRS deepens he will find that he is not alone. Everything in life has its price…

Now to PR face which bears little resemblance to the darker corridors of power and with it, more corruption…

The LFRS website confirms where Kenny went to in intervening years when he was an Assistant Chief Fire Safety, a post to which he contributed little if anything.

One wonders who writes these biographies on the LFRS website?

Perhaps are they are self-indulgent autobiographies where artistic and journalistic licence is taken to new heights a la Warren?

Here we see what Kenny has been doing during all the years he ‘disappeared’ in Lancashire to be transmogrified into someone so unique that  he says he is the only person serving in the whole of the UK Fire Service to use academic qualifications? Really?

The Fire Command element must have been a rather unique challenge for him as well though?

At the end of 2013, Kenny was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List though the Bugler’s Readers might be hard put to find out what exactly it was awarded for? Self advancement?

Show the Bugler a QFSM and there will stand a Freemason though it is all a little embarrassing, though honest, to say so that in 35 years of the Fire Service the Bugler has yet to see this ‘exclusivity’ contradicted, which is of course simply more discrimination against those who are not ‘one of the family’…

When a new Chief is appointed to his task it is not an unreasonable expectation by those who will serve under his command that he will wish to put his imprimatur on his particular FRS and move his organisation to greater heights, or in the case of the LFRS, to dig it out of the mire of self corruption of its own making in which it currently finds itself.

But that has not happened in Lancashire under Kenny who is now long enough in post to make his mark, and to bear responsibility.

Indeed he has disappeared once more, and once more it must be assumed back into academia, in the pursuit of a ‘Doctorate’ and least he makes further fanciful claims of academic uniqueness the Bugler regrets to inform him that this also has all been done before his time.

However, Kenny seems to have forgotten that his career circumstances have changed and as US President Harry S Truman once stated… “ The buck stops here” and indeed this putrescent mess of LFRS corruption does indeed publicly rest in Kenny’s hands and whether or not he likes it the pay back time to the Brethren has arrived much sooner than he expected which is the price which he will have to pay for his appointment.

Kenny now finds himself in a situation which many an experienced Fire Command Officer has found himself in, though it is unlikely that Kenny can recognise this from his ‘fire ground experience’ regardless of his ‘Masters’ degree.

The Fire Brigade through no fault of its own arrives late to find a fire incident totally out of control and running away from it downhill even with the initial resources at its disposal, and come what may, and even though the reinforcements may arrive promptly which is also unlikely these days given the cut backs, the Officer commanding knows that whatever he/she may belatedly attempt they are unlikely to wrest control of the incident back and though he/she may change its direction somewhat there is only likely to be one conclusion, a car park.

This analogy is Kenny’s predicament, which given his previous track record he is also unlikely to retrieve control of but will inevitably pay the price for those matters for which he holds direct and inescapable responsibility.

Mr Mason had the right to expect, in unbiased and the impartial application of the due process of law ( based on the lay man’s principle that what is good for the goose is good for the gander), that Mr. Kenny, would in the case of Hamilton, report this matter to the Chief Constable  for due criminal process on two counts.

Firstly, Hamilton had, and has, a notorious reputation for repeatedly bullying, harassing, and threatening staff directly under his control to such an extent that his behaviour can quite rightly be regarded as beyond anti-social, in that the ‘victim’ can quite readily suffer fear, in which they perceive the potential of his misbehaviour may actually lead to unlawful  low level verbal or physical violence, e.g., pushing or shoving.

Secondly, Hamilton used racially inspired language in a verbal assault in which the ‘victim’, a member of staff of the LFRS perceived, that his ‘out of control’ manner was such that it could, once more, quite easily lead to low level physical violence, e.g., pushing or shoving.

In the instance such was the victim’s depth of fear that she sought immediate sanctuary from Hamilton during which she laid a formal complaint against his intimidating and threatening misbehaviour.

At 06:30hrs Sunday 12th April 2015 the Lancashire Evening Post reported:

“A man was fined for using racially aggravated behaviour.  Alan George Campey, 42, of no fixed abode was found guilty at Preston Magistrates’ Court for using threatening, abusive or insulting words. He was ordered to pay £200, including a victim surcharge of £20, compensation of £25 and £85 costs.”.

The question is what is the difference between this tramp and this other tramp Hamilton?

Mr Mason had the right to expect the unbiased and the impartial application of the due process of law ( based on the lay man’s principle that what is good for the goose is good for the gander) in that Mr. Kenny, in the case of Mr. Gardiner, would also report his prima facie fraudulence and self-enrichment from the Public Purse by reason of false mileage claims to the Chief Constable for due criminal process.

It is the time of year when the House Tax is delivered to all property owners in Lancashire.

It is a direct burden on those with limited income at their disposal but because they are a special people of self-respecting dignity they do not ask for special treatment. As part of that self respecting dignity the public bills must be paid.

Thus in meeting this lawful demand the pensioners of Lancashire turn the heat down; take the cheap cuts of meat, if they can afford it; make do and mend; ensure food and consumables are used to the last drop; and take public transport during the designated hours.

All without complaint because their personal decency and dignity demands so…

The Lancashire pensioner has the expectation that those whom she employs, pays, and reimburses with her taxes, including Mr. Kenny, and which she has placed in trust under his care and command to do their honest duty expects that they, like her, will conduct themselves in public office with the same dignity and honesty with which she conducts her private affairs.

The Lancashire pensioner has the expectation that those who misbehave in any unlawful manner especially in the theft of her taxes which she has honourably paid shall be reported to the Chief Constable for the due process of criminal law.

Nothing less will suffice…

Because Mr. Kenny knowingly chooses not to do his Public duty, by not reporting criminal activity under his jurisdiction.

Has seen fit to breach the Public trust that the Citizens of Lancashire have placed in him in not caring for or protecting those under his command.

Furthermore by failing to meet the reasonable expectations of those who pay him with their taxes; the only conclusion that can be made is that Kenny has a fitting place in the Bugler’s LFRS Rogues Gallery.

Kenny by his complete lack of leadership and his in-action, is like those he replaced, condoning institutional racism, bullying, harassment, common theft, discrimination, and is therefore by definition corrupt himself.

At 15:10 hrs on Thursday 9th April 2015 the Bugler attended at Lancashire County Constabulary Divisional HQ at North Road Preston Lancs England…

The purpose was as a Taxpaying Citizen of Lancashire and the UK to report  crimes which had occurred within the Chief Constable’s jurisdiction and in support of these reports to present anecdotal and actual evidence upon which the Chief Constable should take the operational decision to order an investigation into the criminal activities of two civilian employees employed by the Citizens of Lancashire at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters.

To whit one Brendan Joseph Hamilton suspended Head of Human Resources and a further suspended person Lee Gardiner, Data Protection and Information officer.

This visit was a sweet and sour experience, but first the sour…

In Lancashire and in the UK  when a Citizen visits a Police Station to report a criminal offence he or she meets a person at reception who wears a uniform which rather resembles a proper Police Officers uniform but this person has no authority in law, no more nor less, that the Citizen complainant, or any other Citizen.

In this instance the Bugler proffered information to the female attendant ( Reg No – ‘CO12085’) who was abrupt, interrogative, distinctly unfriendly, and unhelpful. According to this attendant the Lancashire Police did not investigate racially inspired hate crimes, or fraud involving public funds, especially in the public service workplace.

She did not have a Duty Officer nor was it possible to

locate a single uniformed Officer in Police Divisional HQ. She was encouraged to do so and by 15:30hrs after an extended wait she indicate that after a further operational delay (shift change) Uniformed Police Sergeant 2957 P. Baxendale would attend to the Bugler’s concerns.

Finally attendant CO12085 confirmed that she was aware that the Constabulary had a Professional Standards Department but it is uncertain whether she did, or did not know, that this department was controlled by Detective Superintendent 6184 J. Gomery at Constabulary HQ.

And thus to the sweet…   

At 15.45hrs Police Sergeant 2957 P. Baxendale presented and introduced himself in reception. He was very smartly turned out from his top to his shiny boots. He was calm, helpful, and courteous, conducting the Bugler to an interview room off the main concourse.

The Bugler presented his report of these crimes supplemented with documentary and anecdotal evidence, copies of which the Sergeant took in his possession, concluding by inviting the Chief Constable through the aegis of Sergeant Baxendale to investigate his complaints.

Sergeant Baxendale was not invited to express comment, though throughout his demeanour was calm, attentive, questioning, and professional to a standard which was to be expected from a well presented professional Police Officer.

This interview concluded at 16:30hrs, and coincidentally a report on the misconduct of attendant CO12085 will in due course be forwarded to Detective Superintendent 6184 J. Gomery at Constabulary HQ for her staff’s correction.

This is much more serious than just a ‘Circus Fire and Rescue Service’ with a bunch of incompetent well meaning clowns. It is also beyond the realms of a ‘Fun Factory’ as the victims within the LFRS Service HQ will confirm…

There are inevitabilities which ought to be considered in the real world at this point.

It is inevitable that given the international and national disgrace of the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service, with such a terminally damaged reputation of such corrupt corporate ill repute magnitude that only its transfer from ‘independence’, with which its current political and uniformed leaders simply cannot be trusted, back to the transparent Public scrutiny of Lancashire County Council will suffice.

This action must surely include the calling to account of those the Bugler identifies as both politically and professionally responsible which must leading to their political transfer to the ‘back benches’ and the ignominious discharge of their professional Fire Service chief manager.

Only this will suffice if the Public confidence and trust in the reputation of their own LFRS is ever to be rebuilt…

Those politically responsible as Leaders of Lancashire County Council:

 Harding-L        Driver-C           Mein-L        Winlow- LD

Those politically and administratively responsible as Chairmen and Clerk to the Fire Authority:

Wilkinson-L         O’Toole-C           De Molfetta-L- In Post 

Winterbottom Clerk and advisor to the Combined Fire Authority since 2005 and for all these Chairmen.

But not forgetting that the Combined Fire Authority includes 24 other Elected Members from all Political Parties and including Independent Members.

Those professionally responsible:

  Holland          Kenny

But is this only a recent phenomenon?

Why over the last 8 years have the politicians of all Parties not done their jobs which the Taxpayers pay them to do?

Why, because as the records of open correspondence to each and every Elected Members will show all 25 politicians were made fully aware at the earliest point in 2008 where this corporate corruption was leading to, did they not intervene and take firm  corrective action?

The present incumbent Chair of the CFA is County Councillor F.De Molfetta who has been regularly informed of corruption within the LFRS both by email and by hand delivered hard copies of this information from the Bugler.

De Molfetta has just as regularly chosen to ignore the information placed before him over which he has the penultimate political responsibility in the Labour Party in Lancashire.

Nor did he choose to take any investigative or corrective action either.

Can De Molfetta claim ignorance of the corruption which surrounds him and if so, how ?

Or is he also part of it ?

The Bugler reinforced the point with the following letter. Go Here.

Next there is the notion that the publishing by the Bugler of corporate corruption is also a new phenomenon. That is not so either.

A phenomenon which smears every uniformed senior manager, including the decent, which will undoubtedly affect and limit their careers for many years to come when they apply for a vacancy in another FRS elsewhere coming as they will from a Lancashire with such an appalling reputation.

Rampant corruption was first reported publicly in correspondence in 2011. Correspondence which was directly circulated both by mail and email to every serving Elected Member on the Combined Fire Authority.Go Here.

Finally, given the dimension of the pension debacle; the early emergence of organised deceit and cover up on a corporate scale; with early clear indicators that the CFA was being deliberately and consistently misled to this day;  the first call for a Ministerial Inquiry was made in 2008; with again the CFA Elected Members being individually informed.

So the call for a Ministerial Inquiry or an Independent Judicial Inquiry into the LFRS and those bearing culpable responsibility is not a new or novel idea either. Go Here.

When, inevitably, an Inquiry is convened the Morning Bugler will open all its archives to that Inquiry.

With the advance of legislation comes new Regulations in this case the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014(August) which has made the keeping of secrets by the LFRS even more difficult which it shall shortly find out, though it was noteworthy in spoon feeding the councillors that the increased access to hitherto secret documents was cleverly sidestepped. Go Here.