There’s been much clamour in the local press concerning the overzealous pursuit of alleged litter louts or more accurately those who happen to be easy targets of litter Hitlers issuing Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) at the drop of a bookmark.
Now as our readers will know we have a particular aversion to filth and detritus at Leaky Towers which may explain why we report so often on the dirty dealings of Wirral Council. Therefore whilst we realise the days of the Litter Defence Volunteers have long gone we would usually wholeheartedly applaud efforts to keep Wirral tidy. However we also realise that standards in local public life have also fallen into the gutter.So when we read that fines from FPNs issued by Kingdom Security Ltd on behalf of Wirral Council had topped well over a quarter of a million pounds in the first three months of their mutually beneficial arrangement we began to question the motivation behind the cash for trash scheme.
Is this more about swelling Council coffers than about environmental concerns ?.
One of our sources shares these concerns and has provided Wirral Leaks with information that suggests that Kingdom Security Ltd are clearly incentivising their staff to issue Fixed Penalty Notices and at the same time misleading councils about it across the UK.
Our source informs us that Kingdom bought up a company called XFor who were an environmental enforcement company, who are mentioned in the articles below .The XFor Directors now run the environmental enforcement for Kingdom. These articles talk about incentivising with XFor, a practice that is being continued with Kingdom.
http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/10300588.Litter_fines_firm_goes_into_administration/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21200058
Another article shows a previous Kingdom officer who worked in Merton and was fired for sticking up for the public because they were wrongfully being fined. There is also mention of a £5 bonus for each ticket issued. This practice went on despite Merton Council responding in a a Freedom of Information Request that : “Under our agreement with Kingdom security no incentive scheme or structure is in place. Staff are not rewarded for the volume of FPNs issued.”
Consequently following the recent bad local press Kingdom have been quick to take down their job advert showing that these incentive bonuses are part of the job description of their grandly-titled Senior Environmental Enforcement Officers .
Fortunately our quick thinking source saved a copy before it was removed :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzQAnNSJw0cgVlVSaEJ5TUlxSzZCTmxncGtZYjk3cXJSQ0ln/view
These job adverts and various articles in the press clearly show that Kingdom Security Ltd are incentivising their staff to issue more tickets. If councils are clearly stating they prohibit this, are Kingdom in breach of their contracts ?. And could this mean that every ticket they have issued has been done without proper authority and everyone who has been fined is entitled to claim the fines back from these councils ?.
Here are some further examples where Kingdom Security Ltd are accused of overzealous issuing of FPNs.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/axe-security-firms-contract-now-5678491
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/canterbury-cigarette-gestapo-jibe-17685/
Sounds like Wirral Council undertook their usual fail safe “due diligence” exercise before they entered into their contract with Kingdom.Indeed we’d be particularly interested to know whether Kingdom informed the Council that the Home Office have imposed illegal working civil penalties amounting to £15,000 on them !.
Therefore might we suggest that Wirral Council should have checked that Kingdom Security Ltd had cleared up their own mess before allowing them to inflict their charmless enforcers on the long suffering public of Wirral.There’s certainly no mention of any of the above on Kingdom’s own blog where they boast : “Kingdom Makes Incredible Start on Wirral”.
http://blog.kingdom.co.uk/2015/07/kingdom-makes-incredible-start-in-wirral.html
We’re left wondering if the shit hits the fan on this one who’s there to pick up the tab?.
Wirralleaks 
My brother has recently been fined by the fag police. The ticket issued stated the alleged offence happened on Cavendish rd. Birkenhead yet their fag officer tried to talk to my brother near the junction of Ashville road. The fag cop didn’t offer any ID so my brother who admittedly was a bit drunk at the time told him to go away, not quite as politely as that and carried on walking until he got fed up of the guy hassling him and stopped on the corner of Cavendish rd.
To cut the story short despite my brother denying dropping anything the fag cop issued him with a fpn after threatening him with calling the police etc. I lodged an appeal online for my brother and within 3 days he had a phone call from Stephen Smith team leader of KINGDOM LTD and was told the appeal had failed and that he would simply issue another ticket stating the offence had happened on Park Rd North. Now I that it was illegal to issue another ticket retrospectively to cover a mistake on the original ticket. So I complained and asked for the address of the independent adjudicator that deals with the appeals only to be told that Stephen Smith the team leader for KINGDOM LTD. Adjudicate the appeals so it’s pretty obvious that unless the Wirral Globe gets involved like with guy with the book mark that all appeals will fail.
Course, these Fixed Penalty Notices that they hurl about to cover a multitude of summary sins do not have to be accepted by us the victims and recipients of these dreadful money collecting instruments that the Council love to employ.
This is true……sometime back, and this tale is completely true, I fell out of the Ale House and before I began my zig zagging route home I took one last long and determined drag upon my hand rolled cigarette before depositing it upon the path alongside forty thousand other butts that had been discarded by other pilgrims who’d been supping in my Ale House.
Then it popped around the corner. My gift from God. I believe that God knows everything and he does everything for a purpose. Whether it’s you stumbling out of bed in the morning, stubbing your toe and making you howl in pain or the Council involving themselves in me and my daily activities, I say God did it and he did it for a purpose.
God sent me a yellow coated, black booted, moustacheod , cap wearing fella who was salivating in anticipated pleasure thinking that he’d found me to receive one of his tickets for a litter offence.
Course, for a very brief moment, until I opened my mouth and gave him a flavour of what was to come, he genuinely believed that I was going to be a little documentary administrative tick on his personal performance indicator graph.
After complying with the requirements of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act, telling him who I was and which dwelling I lived within, this equipment laden utility belt wearing Council agent extended his hand toward mine and said, ‘the details are on the back and it explains how you go about paying the charge.’
It was at this point this fella, this smartly turned out uniformed public servant realised that this encounter would be the low point of his day and one which introduced him to a fool of a soul who really couldn’t care less and the notion of getting one of his tickets did not apply to me.
I told him that I didn’t want his ticket, I had no intention of popping it in my pocket and ever paying. Furthermore, I told this sweet child of humanity that I wanted to be reported for depositing litter and I wanted to go to Court.
Course, then our relationship began to break down. After telling me that I had to have the ticket, it was the Law and it was cheaper than facing the Magistrates, I reassured him that he was addressing an idiot who didn’t want a bargain and I repeated, ‘I want the justice. Send me before the Court.’
A long and somewhat lengthy telephone conversation ensued between the author of the ticket and his line manager who must have then said, ‘let me speak to him’. During this polite exchange where I was again invited to accept the ticket and its financial penalty to make all things easy bloody peesy I again repeated that there was no legal requirement on my part to accept the ticket and I wanted to go to Court.
Then the Constable was called. The Constable arrived, exchanged words with my tormentor and approached me saying, did you drop your cigarette on the floor and after Cautioning me I made no reply. Again, after a brief exchange between the two where they were clearly talking about my cigarette that I dropped on the floor, the Constable, probably sensing that I was a complete twat, said and this is when I knew I was home and dry, ‘would please point out which of these cigarette butts is the one you dropped’.
The taste of success was overwhelming. I simple smiled at the Constable, shook my head making it clear that I had no intention of helping my prosecution by pointing out my butt that lay amidst forty thousand discarded butts that at some stage became unwanted by their original smoker.
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