Electoral Roll Officer Forged Returns

A frustrated electoral roll official with Lambeth Council, who was fed-up with unsuccessfully knocking on local residents’ doors, forged the returns himself, a court heard yesterday.

Emmanuel Ofori Atta, 51, returned 60 fraudulent forms after failing to get door-to-door responses in the south London borough.

The dad-of-three, of Violet Lane, Waddon, Croydon pleaded guilty to one count of misconduct in public office between October 14 and November 11, 2017.

Inner London Crown Court heard Atta, a Day Centre assistant project manager with the council, also worked in the evening to complete the electoral roll.

“Your roll was door-to-door canvassing to complete the electoral roll,” Recorder David Holland QC told the first-time offender.

“Your role was to ensure a public document was accurately maintained so those with the right to vote can and those who do not have the right to vote are removed.

“You were paid £2.50 for each signed form and a number of these forms were fraudulent. The gain you were seeking to make was in the hundreds of pounds.

“Those that would have lost their vote means there would have been a high impact.”

Atta was sentenced to an 18 month community order, which includes 80 hours community service work.

He was also ordered to pay £2,070 compensation to Lambeth Council, plus £100 costs.

Prosecutor Mr Neil Mercer told the court names on the returns were misspelled and did not properly match, with obvious handwriting errors.

“The integrity of the register is really  important so people do not lose their right to vote at elections and it is also used by other agencies like credit reference companies so residents could have lost their credit rating.

When questioned Atta claimed he was “depressed” at “knocking on doors all night” and felt “under pressure” because he could not get enough confirmed signatures.

He also knew he would not receive a payment if he returned empty-handed, but claimed his motivation was “frustration, not greed.”