Church and State blog: Independent Police Complaints Commission: My complaint to the IPCC about the alleged non-referral of my complaint against HM Revenue and Customs for serious misconduct (WITH UPDATE 6/9/2017)

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Independent Police Complaints Commission: My complaint to the IPCC about the alleged non-referral of my complaint against HM Revenue and Customs for serious misconduct (WITH UPDATE 6/9/2017)

Re: Internet cuts since 26 May 2017

From my earlier blog post's Update 6 September (11.15am):

"And it's not just Facebook blocks, blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site that Declan and I are dealing with these days. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. See my blog post of 21 June, Internet cuts: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 6/9/2017 RE: 155th Internet cut since 26 May 2017)."

6 September (11.20am): 155 internet cuts since 26 May 2017.* We had to suspend work on our Church and State website on 15 June after 4 internet cuts in one night. With an all-time record breaking 7 cuts in one day by 4pm on 29 August; 58 cuts last month; 10 cuts last week; 6 cuts this week; 4 cuts yesterday; none since midnight today (as of 6 September at 11.20am).

1. 143rd 29 August 2017, 8.42am
2. 144th 29 August 2017, 9.54am
3. 145th 29 August 2017, 10.52am
4. 146th 29 August 2017, 11.38am
5. 147th 29 August 2017, 12.02pm
6. 148th 29 August 2017, 12.47pm
7. 149th 29 August 2017, 3.10pm
-----------------------------------------
8. 150th 4 September 2017, 12.14pm
9. 151st 4 September 2017, 4.38pm
-----------------------------------------
10. 152nd 5 September 2017, 11.53am
11. 153rd 5 September 2017, 1.48pm
12. 154th 5 September 2017, 4.35pm
13. 155th 5 September 2017, 9.32pm

* 12 out of the first 18 internet cuts were within the first four days of a BT engineer's visit on 12 June. It is a matter of written record that this engineer "securely fitted a brand new master socket to another location on the same wall. He also carried out a comprehensive line test and could not find a problem with [our] line".

The War on Free Expression

HMRC Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment: "We previously asked you to complete Self Assessment tax returns because you told us that you would receive self-employed income. However, your 2015-16 return only included income of £2,967 from Network for Church Monitoring and as you had told us that this was PAYE income, we have closed your Self Assessment record" [emphasis added].

In a blog post last November I asked if it would take the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to protect our address with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC); see my blog post of 29 November 2016, Will it take the Independent Police Complaints Commission to protect our address with HM Revenue and Customs? (WITH UPDATE 22/12/2016). Little did Declan and I know at the time that it was our residential address that was insecure (as opposed to our company contact details). On 12 August I complained to the IPCC about serious misconduct by HMRC staff involving criminal or near criminal behaviour. I not only complained about HMRC Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment updating my address on 11 July without my permission (and the detrimental effect this may have on Declan and myself in terms of the possible suspension of our Housing Benefit), but also their subsequent closure of my Self Assessment account based upon fabricated hearsay evidence which no independent judiciary would accept. This morning I copied IPCC Chief Executive Lesley Longstone into this complaint to the IPCC Internal Investigations Unit about what HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations allege was the non-referral by the IPCC of my completed IPCC complaint form:

For the attention of Lesley Longstone, Chief Executive, Independent Police Complaints Commission

Internal Investigations Unit
Independent Police Complaints Commission

Address removed for email

30 August 2017

Tax reference: [number removed]

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find attached the word version of my completed Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) complaint form dated 12 August 2017.

The IPCC acknowledged my complaint on 12 August 2017, stating that it had been sent to the appropriate authority I selected in the online complaint form (namely, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) for HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations to consider.

Please find attached a snapshot of the IPCC's online acknowledgement.

On 23 August 2017, HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations told me that they never received my IPCC complaint form. Please could you tell me the reason why.

On 24 August 2017, I sent the word version of my completed IPCC complaint form to HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations (at referrals.ig@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk). HMRC Ministerial Correspondence Team have acknowledged receipt of my correspondence.

Please would you acknowledge receipt of this email by reply.

Yours faithfully,

Maria Dolores Heavey
NINO: [number removed]

UPDATE 6 September (11.25am): Not so much as an auto reply from the IPCC! But on 30 August Declan was assured by the IPCC over the telephone that they had received my email above. On 30 August we also discovered that the above-mentioned HMRC blog post last November had been vandalised; see my previous blog post, My blog post about the difficulties we experienced last year with Her Majesty Revenue and Customs has been vandalised (WITH UPDATE: 30/8/2017). I have been blogging HMRC week in week out for two months. Only last Friday we were concerned that this entire blog was at risk; see my blog post of 26 August, Is this letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs so outrageous that it has now put this entire N4CM blog at risk? (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 30/8/2017).

***

We are well familiar with the IPCC. For example, Declan complained to the IPCC about the police investigation into the removal of our flat door in 2012. It was the IPCC's finding on that occasion that since our then landlady had subsequently signed an undertaking to the County Court promising not to harass us, there was no requirement for the Metropolitan Police Service to take further action.

Re: Removal of our flat door

Paragraph 23(ii) of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

23(ii) On 21 August 2012, Ms McKenzie signed an undertaking to the County Court promising not to harass the Applicant and his wife following her builder's removal of the door to their flat (see Annex 9, p. 31). The Independent Police Complaints Commission later upheld the Applicant's appeal against the police investigation of the incident "on information only", stating that "no further action is required by the force in this instance".

From My Picks:

9 June: Ministry of Justice: Complaint to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice against the County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice (WITH UPDATE - Day 13 21/6/2017)

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Independent Police Complaints Commission: My complaint to the IPCC about the alleged non-referral of my complaint against HM Revenue and Customs for serious misconduct (WITH UPDATE 6/9/2017)

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