OK by popular demand the Jamie Cann debacle; Pics here http://static.flickr.com/73/158921114_451739b3ba_b.jpg
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I was doing some work in Africa investigating fraud and I came across Hestair trading fire engines and dustcarts in deals involving large bribes. I also knew the MD of Hestair was serving a long prison sentence in Iraq for corruption so when I noticed an unusual deal with IBC and Hestair in the 1983/4 I decided to have a look and yes it was a crooked deal too. Hestairs owner David Hargreaves threatened to sue me if I said anything so I accepted his challenge and asked the council how they came to have GBP 250K worth of Hestair buses on order when no meeting of the Management Committee had approved the order. David Hargreaves decided not to sue me after all. At first there were denials and then usual wishy washy statements until I asked for a meeting of the Management Committee or I would make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. I got the Management Committee and amazingly Jamie Cann tried to 'chair' it but I wasn't having that. Eventually it was admitted Jamie Cann, as leader of the council had ordered GBP 250K worth of Hestair buses and upon further digging I discovered GBP 100K that should have been paid to British Leyland for buses had gone missing. Naturally that was then quickly discovered again and paid over to British Leyland. If I had kept quiet Jamie Cann would have earned well out of that when it was divided out. That was only one scandal while he was running the town as well as the Crown Pools rip off but Jamie was so on edge over his crooked deals he began a mamoth drinking bout http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/166208.stm that eventually killed him. I used to go home drunk but he was caught going out drunk and was involved in several distasteful scenes which took him close to deselection. Jamie Cann was not as lucky as me. I quit drinking before it killed me, just, but the pressures he was under overwhelmed the man and he died in 2001 while still our MP. He was a nasty bit of work, a self confessed Stalanist, meant not many in the local labour party were going to stand up to him but the hypocrisy that followed his death was as bad as his own behaviour. He was given a Civic funeral at St Mary le Towers were all and sundry gave speeches about how fine a man the creep was and to cap it all they named the building in the pics after him too. Some crooks get jailed others get lionised and it is about time the truth about Jamie Cann was told and the building pictured be given a better name such as Stalins House to remind future generations that when a politician becomes too powerful and corrupt so does his party. peterturtill@hotmail.com more pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/ipswich/