Brown envelopes, theft, fraud and our Council

It’s a story which is nine years old and never been told before. But before we tell that story, one needs some background.

But before we begin, what one must remember is the party in power through all of these incidents, were the local Folkestone & Hythe Conservative Party.

Matthew Donovan a former SDC (now FHDC) employee was sentenced to a 10-week jail sentence -suspended for two years. Donovan was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £800 in costs within six months for plundering thousands of pounds from parking meters after he left the Council in 2011.

Minka Braun, Donovan’s Barrister at the trial said:

“While working for Shepway District Council he had become aware that others employed by the council were involved in thefts from the council.”

After Donovan left the Council in 2011, Private Eye magazine in their Rotten Borough awards, gave Shepway District Council, as it was then, The Brown Envelope Award, and reported the following:

Six months after Donovan was handed his sentence in Jan 2014, the Council’s procurement card data shows that somebody fraudulent ordered themselves £560 worth of Easy Jet tickets. This person worked in the department overseen by the Council’s lawyer at the time, Estelle Culligan. This story has never been publicly told before.

But of course, the individual who fraudulently claimed the tickets did not end up before the courts, nor did any of the Cllrs for receiving “gifts”, Donovan did.

In 2020, work undertaken by Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International Ltd, titled: Tackling Fraud in the Public Sector – A local Government Perspective – for and on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, makes it the clear the main reason why people commit internal fraud within local authorities is poor internal controls.

As we have reported, five people left Folkestone and Hythe in 2022/23, without any substantive investigation into the financial and contract irregularities. All these irregularities happened due to “poor internal controls” at Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

That said and moving on, since Donovan’s Barrister first made her statement in Court, and Private Eye announced the Council had won the brown envelope award in 2011, plus the fraudulent tickets, and all the financial and contract irregularities we have reported on, has anything really changed?

We’ll leave you to ponder that. 

The Shepway Vox Team

The Velvet Voices of Voxatiousness