Latest news with #LordTimpson
Daily Mail
18-05-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Fraudster celebrated as model reformed convict steals £37,000 after being handed job as head of HR and finance by Labour prisons minister
She was celebrated by Lord Timpson's charity as the very model of a reformed prisoner. But when the convicted fraudster was employed by the Prison Reform Trust as head of finance and human resources, it paid a heavy price. For seven years, Samantha O'Sullivan secretly plundered the charity's coffers, stealing £307,000, which is more than the organisation received in gifts and donations last year. Incredibly, the 57-year-old's history of theft was well-known and even celebrated at the charity, which prides itself on offering 'second chances'. Yet she was able to fool its illustrious board of trustees – which included former justice secretary David Gauke, former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Nigel Newcomen, and Lord Timpson, who led the trust over the period prior to becoming Prisons Minister last year. Now after the mother-of-two pleaded guilty to the seven-year fraud on May 7 at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court, her extraordinary deception can be revealed. In her previous role as deputy official receiver of Croydon, responsible for managing bankruptcy assets in the region, O'Sullivan preyed on the destitute, conning their solicitors into writing cheques payable to her instead of her office. The divorcee stole £85,000 from those facing bankruptcy who had to sell their homes to pay their debt – and used it to enjoy a lavish holiday to Cambodia, buy home furnishings and hand bundles of cash to friends and family. After she was caught in 2012, O'Sullivan had to sell her £237,000 home to pay back the proceeds. Abigail Penny, defending at the time, told Croydon Crown Court her client had been saddled with debt by a drug-addicted ex-husband, and was suffering moderate to severe depression. But Judge Ruth Downing jailed O'Sullivan for a year in December 2013, citing 'an overwhelming abuse of a position of trust'. Following her release, O'Sullivan secured a job at the Prison Reform Trust in 2016 after her conviction was portrayed as a one-off mistake. But one insider said: 'The risk was obvious. Why would you put a convicted fraudster in charge of finances?' Once a month, O'Sullivan met Lord Timpson and trustees, who were responsible for 'taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud', according to charity records. But the mounting missing money went unnoticed by the board and independent auditors until 2024. The charity opted to pursue O'Sullivan by funding a private prosecution when Action Fraud failed to act. Yesterday, Pia Sinha, the trust's chief executive, said its current senior management team had not been involved in O'Sullivan's appointment and would not have hired her themselves. She said the current team had introduced 'robust safeguards to ensure this cannot happen again', adding that no programmes or services had been affected.
The Sun
16-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Cobbler Timpson will face millions in losses after Chancellor's National Insurance tax raid
COBBLERS chain Timpson has warned it will face a multi-million-pound hit from the Chancellor's tax raid — just months after its boss quit to join the Government. The family-owned firm, known for its history of hiring former offenders, saw CEO James Timpson step down to become Prisons Minister in July to work on reforming jails. 2 2 In the company's first set of accounts since the General Election, it says: 'His time in Government will be a loss to the business.' Timpson reported sales rose by 4.5 per cent last year to £347million, while profits jumped by 26 per cent to £48million. But the company said its record year would be difficult to match in the face of big increases in the minimum wage and 'a swinging increase in our contribution to National Insurance'. The firm, which already pays above the Living Wage rate, said it would face £12million of extra costs from Rachel Reeves' changes to NI. The admission is awkward given Lord Timpson's ministerial role. The Labour peer did not return a request for comment. Timpson is often held up as an example of a good employer. It has 17 holiday lodges for staff to take breaks, and it spent £711,000 last year on training recruits with a criminal record. Ex-offenders make up 12 per cent of its workforce. Accounts show it paid the Treasury £108.2million last year in VAT, employment taxes and business rates on its shops. Martin Lewis issues warning for 700,000 workers as National Insurance hikes have 'direct impact' on take home pay RIVAL DOC BID A TUSSLE for NHS doctor surgery landlord Assura has taken a fresh twist after healthcare investor Primary Health Properties made a £1.68billion offer yesterday. It is higher than the £1.61billion accepted from private equity firms KKR and Stonepeak Partners. Assura will consider the new offer. RICH TAX PUSH THE UK's richest are paying less tax than they should, a watchdog says. The National Audit Office said HMRC had earned £5.2billion from tackling 'non-compliance' from well-off taxpayers in 2023/24. That was more than £1billion higher than projections — confirming more avoidance than expected.
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Organised crime gangs in prisons ‘keep me up at night', says minister
The prisons minister has admitted that the scale of organised crime gangs operating within Britain's jails keeps him up at night. Lord Timpson said 'very, very wealthy' crime bosses were corrupting staff to bring in drugs or flying them in with hi-tech drones so they could profit from bored inmates in overcrowded jails. In an interview with The Telegraph, he said it was a 'cat and mouse' game to try to detect and stop the drones being used to bring in drugs, which are sold for three or four times their street value and generate huge profits. Lord Timpson said the Government was determined to reduce overcrowding and reform the prison and probation system, so that offenders could benefit from education, training and work. It would mean they left jail with a 'one-way ticket, not a return', he added. His comments come ahead of this month's independent sentencing review by David Gauke, the former justice secretary. It is expected to recommend greater use of community punishments – where criminals serve sentences at home under house arrest, are electronically tagged and subject to curfews – to reduce overcrowding. Lord Timpson also revealed that 37 prison staff were prosecuted in 2024 after the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) 'beefed up' its counter-corruption unit. It worked with the National Crime Agency to target organised crime gangs and funded 20 specialist police investigators to root out criminal behaviour. Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, has disclosed that up to three-quarters of inmates at the worst jails had tested positive for drugs. He said one high-security prison, HMP Garth in Lancashire, had become an 'airport' because so many drugs were being delivered to its inmates by drones. Lord Timpson, the former chief executive of Timpson, a shoe repair and key-cutting business, said: 'Serious organised crime is a big problem, a huge problem, and it's one of the things that keeps me awake at night, because of the impact it has on a prison environment, from drugs, debt, violence and everything that goes with that. 'A lot of these serious organised criminals in their cell at night are actually very, very wealthy people connected with very big illegal businesses, and they use that as bad actors.' He said serious organised crime's influence in prison was 'toxic'. 'Creates fear and intimidation' Lord Timpson said: 'It's not just in corrupting officers. It's the way they create fear and intimidation on the wings amongst prisoners, as well as staff.' He said he was not aware of organised crime deliberately placing staff in prison or targeting women officers, despite a series of cases where female staff have been sacked and prosecuted for relationships with criminals. The prisons minister said: 'I don't think anybody joins the service to really do bad things. I think they really genuinely joined to provide a great service, to keep the public safe and to help people turn their lives around. 'But like in all organisations, you have a few bad apples but in a prison, more than in probation, the knock-on effect of those bad apples is huge.' MoJ data show that the number of staff in prisons dismissed for misconduct increased from 99 in the year to March 2019, to 165 in the year to the end of June 2024. That was double the 81 dismissed a decade ago in the year to March 2014. According to prison service data, 29 female officers have been dismissed over the past three years for forming relationships with male prisoners in England and Wales. This compares with only nine during the three-year period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. 'I don't have any evidence [organised crime] is targeting women specifically, but what I do know is that to conduct their business, it makes it a lot easier for them to corrupt staff. That's why the figure now is 37 prosecutions. So the Corruption Unit has been beefed up, and it needs to be because it's an increasing problem,' said Lord Timpson. 'Cat and mouse game' He admitted that drones bringing drugs and contraband were a 'serious problem'. He said: 'The technology of drones has increased rapidly as has our ability to detect them and stop them, but it is a cat and mouse game.' Lord Timpson said the Government had to deal with the 'other side of the equation', namely addiction and overcrowding. He said: 'When there aren't enough opportunities for education, workshops, all the things that keep people focused in a prison, then that's one of the problems. 'But it comes back to serious, organised criminals. This is a market, this is an opportunity, and that's why they want to bring the drugs in because [of] how much more expensive drugs are in prison.' Every morning at 6am, Lord Timpson receives an email on the overcrowding crisis, which has seen the number of spare places drop below 1,000. The level of overcrowding is similar to that of last year when Labour was forced to introduce its early release scheme, which freed offenders 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than halfway. He admitted that it was 'tight', a 'very difficult situation' and 'not where you want to be'. However, he added that with extra places from a new 1,500-man jail HMP Millsike near York and the refurbishment of house blocks, he was 'confident' that they were in a 'good place' and maintained that the Government would not introduce another early release scheme. Internal MoJ forecasts indicate that prisons will run out of space again by early 2026, which means any legislative changes flowing from the independent sentencing review are likely to have to be introduced by autumn to solve the overcrowding crisis.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Ignore the do-gooders, we need more criminals in prison
The next crisis is already looming. Our prisons are almost full again, and it is a near certainty that there will soon be another mass early release of violent criminals from their prison cells onto our streets. Harold Macmillan once said that 'when all the establishment are united, they are always wrong'. Yet when it comes to prisons and sentencing – amongst the relevant portion of the establishment – there is a cosy consensus at play. Sentencing policy is dominated by those who might be termed the 'prison reform industrial complex' – a small group of charities and individuals who operate in and around prisons. When the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, made his maiden speech in the Lords last July, for instance, peer after peer declared an interest in one prison charity or another – rarely straying from the line that we should be incarcerating fewer criminals. This should not come as a shock. These reform organisations want to improve prison conditions. But in practice, what these groups would like to see is for fewer criminals to be sent to prison. Before he became a minister, in an interview last February, Lord Timpson said Britain is 'addicted to punishment' and 'a lot' of people in prison 'shouldn't be there'. Such claims are not supported by the facts – and are at odds with the public mood on crime and how criminals should be dealt with. Astonishingly, the most prolific offenders are sent to prison on less than half (46.2 per cent) the occasions after conviction for a further indictable or either-way offence. Given that last year an estimated 9.6 million crimes were committed in England and Wales – up 14 per cent from the previous year – that is deeply alarming. The current limit on the number of prison places has led to police officers being told to 'pause arrests' and for the judiciary to consider prison capacity limits when sentencing those convicted of criminal offences. One of the Government's key challenges is to show that they understand that people are fundamentally far more threatened by the loss of law and order than arguments around prison reform. Some ministers appear to be wise to this. In her fight with the Sentencing Council over its plans to consider offenders' background when imposing sentences, Shabana Mahmood has shown herself to be willing to face down the 'blob' that permeates so many of our institutions. The Government's current plan – to increase the size of our prison estate by 14,000 places – is welcome too. But the Government must go much further – an extra 43,000 prison places will be needed over the coming decade. It should also rebuild the prison regime so inmates can work and develop meaningful skills while in custody, activities that we know reduce the chances of reoffending on release. A new consensus of decision makers, chosen by voters and doing what the public wants, is emerging. Large rewards lie in store for whoever turns it into a reality.
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Telegraph
Sexual harassment and bullying ‘normalised' among prison officers, minister reveals
Sexual harassment, bullying and racism have become normalised among prison and probation officers in jails across England and Wales because of a 'toxic culture' of cover-up by senior staff, the prisons minister has warned. Speaking at the launch of a report into behaviour and professional standards in the services, Lord Timpson said the 'unacceptable' behaviour had been allowed to grow 'unchecked' because staff did not report it for fear of retribution by their bosses and managers 'closing ranks'. He revealed one in eight prison officers said they had been bullied, harassed or suffered discrimination in the past year, according to internal surveys. He warned the 'toxic culture' was contributing to a recruitment crisis with potential new applicants deterred from joining the prison and probation service and 'good staff' being 'driven out.' 'All of this is against a backdrop of damaging newspaper headlines about inappropriate relationships between staff and inmates and officers smuggling in contraband and drugs,' he said . An independent unit is to be set up to investigate complaints and root out poor behaviour, a move recommended by the report into behaviour and professional standards in the prison service by Jennifer Rademaker, a businesswoman and non-executive director with the Ministry of Justice. Speaking at High Down prison in Surrey, Lord Timpson cited one current case of a female officer who was sexually assaulted while on night duty at prison when a more senior male officer 'forced his tongue into her mouth' after harassing her, including asking her bra size. The woman initially did not report the officer even though he had 'a reputation' for such behaviour but finally plucked up the courage, leading to his sacking and prosecution for sexual assault. 'Gone unchecked for too long' 'His actions were clearly despicable. But her story begs the question, why did it take an assault for this man to finally be called out? Why, when he already had a reputation, was he not exposed sooner,' said Lord Timpson. 'Unacceptable behaviour, language, attitudes and actions have become normalised, tolerated and accepted over time, and as Jennifer's report shows, bullying, intimidation and harassment in HM Prison and Probation Service has gone unchecked for far too long,' he said 'Some of these stories may not make the front pages in the same way, but they are no less devastating. Disabled staff still struggling to get basic adjustments. They need to do their jobs, colleagues who have been repeatedly subjected to racist remarks but keep quiet because they think nothing will change. 'There is a fundamental, devastating lack of trust in how complaints of bullying, discrimination and harassment are dealt with. 'Too many staff feel unable to speak out, fearing they won't be believed, that it will only make matters worse because the hierarchy above them will close ranks and that nothing will be done.' 'Imagine making complaints knowing full well, it will be investigated by a senior manager who is friends with the person harassing you, and they socialise together outside of work too. 'Imagine plucking up the courage to come forward and have your complaint passed on to the perpetrator, or to learn that paperwork about your grievance has been left in a public area for everyone to see. Imagine seeing a colleague branded a grass for speaking out.' 'Unacceptable behaviour breaks people. It drives out good staff, the kind you want to keep in service. It creates a toxic culture, and it makes it much harder for you to do your jobs, the vital work that turns lives around, cuts crime and makes our streets safer. That's why professional standards matter,' said Lord Timpson.
