A former poster girl for the Met’s firearms unit was cleared on Friday of leaking confidential information after claiming she was exposing ‘corruption and prejudice’ against BAME staff within the police watchdog organisation.
Carol Rita Howard, 41, worked on a short-term contract as an investigator for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which she later took to an employment tribunal.
She lost the £144,000 race claim after the tribunal heard she complained of victimisation whenever she was unhappy at work.
Howard brought 33 allegations against the IPCC, but her ‘witch hunt’ claim was ruled to be groundless.
While at the IPCC she sent 101 emails from her work account to her personal hotmail account, which included sensitive personal information of police investigations, Croydon Crown Court heard.
Howard, of Coulsdon Road, Coulsdon always admitted then passing on the information to her solicitor, but insisted this was to assist her “whistleblower” case against the IPCC.
She claims the IPCC discriminated against Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff.
In 2014 she successfully won a £37,000 pay-out from her former employer The Metropolitan Police after it was ruled she was “bullied, harassed and victimised” while one of only two black officers in the 700-strong Diplomatic Protection Group.
The jury took around thirty minutes to unanimously acquit her of one count of unlawfully obtaining personal information under the Data Protection Act between March 28, 2017 and April 6, 2017, including victims, witnesses and service users.
They also found her not guilty of another count under the Act of unlawfully disclosing the same personal information to her solicitor between the same dates.
The former Lambeth and Croydon borough officer’s gun-toting image was used on security posters at the 2012 London Olympics and she served The Met between 2001 and 2014.
The court heard she was hired by the IPCC on October 31, 2016 and did not deny accessing the information, which included the probe of a serving police officer, accused of sexual offences and sending it to her solicitor.
“She admitted forwarding the emails to herself and sending them to her solicitor,” prosecutor Eva Niculiu told the jury.
“Her reasons for sending them out was to get legal advice for her ‘whistle-blowing’ employment tribunal claims of corruption and prejudice at the IPCC against BAME staff.”
Howard was employed by the IPCC for approximately five months. “Her employment ended on the basis of suspected security breaches,” explained the prosecutor.
“In the days up to April 6, 2017, 101 emails had been sent from the defendant’s IPCC email address to her personal hotmail address and all of these contained personal data.
“She also retained a copy of her ‘blue book’, which was used to report on her work at the IPCC during investigations.”
The IPCC reported Howard to the Information Commissioners Office, which prosecuted the case and interviewed her under caution on September 5, 2018.
“When she was questioned he said: ‘I clicked on the emails. I didn’t go through every document.’
“She had daily access to personal information,” added Ms Niculiu. “The IPCC is a public body overseeing complaints made against the police in England and Wales.
“On her first day at work at the IPCC the defendant signed a security procedure form, agreeing not to disclose information.”
The IPCC has since re-branded itself as The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
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