The Root Of All Evil

The Root of All Evil
By Eileen Chubb ©

They say the love of money is the root of all evil and I can understand why after the events of the last five days, this is my official response to those events.

On Friday August 24th, I attended an event at the By-line festival, a panel strangely entitled “A practical guide to whistle-blowing” I was clearly not welcome on this panel arranged by Ranjan Balakumaran who clearly was coming from a financial stance. Fortunately the By-line organisers arranged for me to take part.

My main opponent on the panel was the American lawyer Mary Inman from the Bounty Hunting firm Constantine Cannon. I had rang this firm a few days earlier posing as prospective client, what this call revealed was damming and when challenged by this information Ms Inman failed to respond and continued with her slide show highlighting the big money to be made from reporting fraud. This video can be viewed here

We have always been against bounty hunting because it is not whistle-blowing.
If someone described buying a lottery ticket as an act of courage and whistle-blowing it would be judged a ridiculous thing to say without question. Yet the motives for buying a lottery ticket and that of giving information in exchange for money are identical, the hope of making big bucks. To refer to either as whistle-blowing is to hold cheap the true acts of courage I see in those I speak to every day, acts taken in the public interest and at great personal risk.

I have always been aware of WBUKs links to bounty hunting and in particular to Mary Inman of Constantine Cannon. My concern with WBUK is they have masqueraded as a whistle-blowing support organisation in order to further their own bounty hunting agenda.
I have also heard far too many horror stories from people who contacted the WBUK so called help-line.

Yesterday we discovered that the All Party Parliamentary Group ( APPG) set up allegedly to look at whistle-blowing has appointed WBUK as secretariat and that this is being funded by Constantine Cannon.
For 18 years we have been calling for an inquiry into whistle-blowing and have submitted comprehensive evidence from thousands of cases and have been completely ignored by parliament which then sets up a group of pro bounty hunting individuals alongside WBUK, bought and paid for by one of the worst bounty hunting law firms on the planet.

Why is this so bad and what does it mean for the genuine whistle-blowers?
The above group is attempting to remove the crucial public interest element from whistle-blowing. Please see our book on this subject and why we have taken a ground breaking approach to this vital element that must be clearly defined for genuine whistle-blowers to be protected by law and which excludes bounty hunting for the reasons of logic, the rule of law, common sense and basic decency.

There Is No “ME” In Whistle-blower

I defy any person to read the above and tell me that I am wrong.
You will also see in the above that we want genuine whistle-blowers to be awarded just and fair compensation by a court of law.

According to Mary Inman and Constantine Cannon the following case is not only described as whistle-blowing but held up shamelessly as their star example.

Andrew Patrick worked for the UK firm Pure Collection Ltd, I can find no evidence or a single reference throughout this case to Mr Patrick whilst employed at this firm ever having blown the whistle to his employer that he was concerned about US tax being avoided. Mr Patrick then leaves the firm in circumstances of dispute, which appear to be linked to why Mr Patrick Left or was dismissed. No link to whistle-blowing as no whistle-blowing had occurred.

Mr Patrick then and only then decides to inform the US authorities. Mr Patrick then rings around law firms to obtain advice on his employment dispute. According to Constantine Cannon, Mr Patrick was told they could not help him with his employment dispute but then Mr Patrick mentions the evasion of duty, which this law firm decides to call whistle-blowing and take up.

Last Night on twitter Mr Patrick tweeted “What is your problem with a reward based scheme? In some circumstances there may be a reward in others there may not be, I see nothing wrong with rewarding positive deeds”
Claiming a reward is not whistle-blowing. Alas Mr Patrick has also said a lot more on twitter and I suggest people read his tweets.

What most people will wrongly argue is that this bounty money rewards whistle-blowers for actual losses but this is not true, Mr Patrick for example told the new York times “ If it is a reasonable amount, I would go for a £3,000 to £4,000 car” he said “ I have lived on £250 cars for twenty years”

This was prior to the award being made. The motive is clear.

All the thousands of genuine whistle-blowers I encounter via our Help-line want the wrong doing stopped and action taken against those responsible and only then fair and just compensation for their losses.

WBUK, Constantine Cannon and Parliament along with individuals like Mr Patrick bring the word whistle-blower into disrepute. More than this is the fact that risk to life, cover-ups, miscarriages of justice and human suffering have no value.

As a whistle-blower myself I know what hardship is involved, I have no pension or savings and face financial hardship for the remainder of my life, but I would never change places with individuals such as Mr Patrick because I know it is not whistle-blowing. Every day I talk to genuine whistle-blowers none of us want rewards we want justice.
Edna’s law will protect all genuine whistle-blowers from all sectors equally.

Unfortunately for the powers that be Edna’s Law protects both the convenient and the inconvenient Whistle-blowing.

Do we want American law firms peddling bounty hunting here?
Because the truth is it will cost lives and lives have no value under the US system
Whilst UK whistle-blowers are currently without any legal protection, the bounty hunters and all those who aid and abet them will have a field day with cases that have nothing to do with whistle-blowing and that is the biggest injustice of all.

We object to this APPG and expect a full inquiry into those involved. We ask why bounty hunting US Lawyers are trying to influence UK law by paying individuals and/ or organisations to represent their views in parliament for their own monetary gain ?