God save the parasites indeed;
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/unions/s ... 06,00.html
An internal investigation by the GMB, the country's fourth biggest trade union has accused supporters of its former general secretary and his present deputy of alleged criminal acts, a £150,000 " bribe" to a rival candidate to stand down and massive breaches of union rules on campaigning.
The report, a copy of which has been seen by the Guardian, concentrates on allegations against campaigns run for Kevin Curran, the former general secretary, and the current deputy general secretary, Debbie Coulter, who chaired last October's Labour party conference.
Mr Curran described the whole inquiry as a kangaroo court and his solicitor was considering legal action. Debbie Coulter declined to comment.
There is no investigation into their defeated rival, Paul Kenny, now acting general secretary, who told the investigators that none of the people supporting him had done any campaigning at all.
No witnesses came forward with any evidence against Mr Kenny.
Among the extraordinary allegations in the report are a claim by rival candidate, Phil Davies, that he was offered, via a third party, a £150,000 severance package from Mr Curran to withdraw his candidacy against Ms Coulter.
Mr Curran yesterday described the claim as "a fabrication".
Other allegations include the use of £300 of stamps to send out election addresses, and of false accounting by hiding election material in a union magazine print order.
The report says unknown people broke the Data Protection Act by getting access to members addresses so they could be canvassed.
No criminal action is being taken.
The report accuses a Newcastle firm of solicitors of mounting a " phone bank" operation to cold call members, stuffing thousands of envelopes and paying for election addresses.
They also discovered a pro-Curran website, a " Friends of Curran" bank account with unknown sums of money donated by MPs and a local employer and a " Friends of Curran and Coulter" organisation operating out of a PO Box address in Brighton.
The report alleged that altogether some 50,000 to 60,000 election leaflets were issued in Lancashire, the north east and Scotland, and lists staff and members who admitted helping Mr Curran.
It says they even seconded a TUC member of staff from the north east to work for him.
All these acts are against the present union rules, which forbid campaigning, sending out election material or using union money to fund campaigns.
The report dismisses serious claims - highlighted in the press - that Mr Curran was involved in ballot-rigging or tried to pervert the course of justice in a tribunal case.
The investigation panel was chaired by Phil King, a lawyer with Thompsons', the union's solicitors.
Mr Curran, on advice from his solicitor, Louise Christian, declined to appear before them until they put the allegations to him. He has not been sent the report.
He told the Guardian: " It was a kangaroo court. Everything that was done by my supporters was done by Mr Kenny's supporters by the bucketful.
"I have boxes of material showing that Mr Kenny did similar things and members of the union know this happened but they never came forward.
"For the very first day I was elected and started to sort out the union's finances and change the way it was run they were determined to get me."
Ms Christian said last night that Mr Curran was considering legal action. " This investigation was not impartial, it was one-sided."
She added that the union appeared to have misled Mr Curran in a letter sent on February 27.
The letter, also on the website, says: "The report makes no finding against your client.. there is no intention to provide any information to the press."
Mr King said yesterday: " It was not a kangaroo court. It was a thorough investigation to look at the situation and make recommendations on any rule changes needed for future elections and we did sent information to Mr Curran for comments.
"We have not sent the report to anybody, we reported back to the union."
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