Electoral Case Fraud - Four Derby Women Sentenced

Four women involved in casting a fraudulent vote during last May’s local elections in Derby have been sentenced for their part in the crime.

The sentencing, which took place at Derby Crown Court today (Friday, July 26) sees the conclusion of the first case of its kind in the UK. The Electoral Commission has confirmed that this is the first case where a polling clerk has been involved in an attempt of electoral fraud.

Nasreen Akhtar (46) of Rosehill Street, admitted misconduct in a public office and was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Tameena Ali (27) and Samra Ali (28), both of St Chad’s Road, admitted personation and were given eight months suspended for 18 months and 250 hours of unpaid work.
Noshiela Maqsood (23), of Holcombe Street, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and was given the same sentence as the Alis.

Officers launched an investigation into allegations that the two Alis and their aunt Akhtar, who was a polling clerk, worked together to cast fraudulent votes at the polling station in Rosehill Street, Normanton during last May’s local elections. People present at the polling station that day became suspicious when the two Alis came in to vote, despite not living in the Arboretum ward.

Tameena Ali cast a vote in the name of Nosheila Maqsood, whereas Samra Ali left before marking the ballot paper. Akhtar gave Tameena the ballot paper, knowing she was not Maqsood. Maqsood later lied to officers, telling them that she had personally voted. Fingerprints on the ballot paper proved that it had been touched by Tameena and Maqsood.

Police worked closely with Derby City Council’s Democratic Services Division throughout the investigation.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Richard Foster, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “This is an incredibly serious crime that strikes at the heart of our democratic process.

“These women worked together to try and influence the election in that ward. Akhtar’s offence is all the more serious because she was in a position of authority and trust as a polling clerk.”

Muslim paedophile groomed girl of 13

A muslim who raped a 13-year-old girl he groomed on Facebook has been spared a prison sentence after a judge heard he went to an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless. Adil Rashid, 18, claimed he was not aware that it was illegal for him to have sex with the girl because his education left him ignorant of British law. 

Yesterday Judge Michael Stokes handed Rashid a suspended sentence, saying: ‘Although chronologically 18, it is quite clear from the reports that you are very naive and immature when it comes to sexual matters.’ Earlier Nottingham Crown Court heard that such crimes usually result in a four to seven-year prison sentence. But the judge said that because Rashid was ‘passive’ and ‘lacking assertiveness’, sending him to jail might cause him ‘more damage than good’. 

Rashid, from Birmingham, admitted he had sex with the girl, saying he had been ‘tempted by her’ after they met online. They initially exchanged messages on Facebook before sending texts and chatting on the phone over a two-month period. They then met up in Nottingham, where Rashid had booked a room at a Premier Inn. 

The girl told police they stayed at the hotel for two hours and had sex after Rashid went to the bathroom and emerged wearing a condom. Rashid then returned home and went straight to a mosque to pray. He was arrested the following week after the girl confessed what had happened to a school friend, who informed one of her teachers. He told police he knew the girl was 13 but said he was initially reluctant to have sex before relenting after being seduced. 

Earlier the court heard how Rashid had ‘little experience of women’ due to his education at an Islamic school in the UK, which cannot be named for legal reasons. After his arrest, he told a psychologist that he did not know having sex with a 13-year-old was against the law. The court heard he found it was illegal only when he was informed by a family member. 

 In other interviews with psychologists, Rashid claimed he had been taught in his school that ‘women are no more worthy than a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground’.

Islamic law in England

muslim patrols on OUR streets

Planning permission for new Derby mosque is approved

A MOSQUE which would have a minaret towering 21 metres into the sky should not be built, say Derby City Council planning officers.

The Al-Farooq Trust wants to build on waste land between Mill Hill Lane and Renals Street.

If allowed, the mosque would spread over 2,800 sq metres and would have two domes. The highest ornamental minaret of one dome would be 12 metres high – taking the overall building height to 21 metres.

The trust has been working for more than three years to find a replacement site for its current mosque, which is based in a large house in Western Road. The house can become so overcrowded – with 150 to 200 people at Friday prayers – that worshippers have to pray outside.

But plans for a mosque which could cater for up to 600 people have been criticised by neighbours and planning officers as being too large.

Phillip Binns lives in Mill Hill Lane. He was one of 18 people who wrote to the council objecting to the proposals. A further 106 people signed a petition against the plans. Mr Binns said: "Parking would be a real issue at peak times. There could also be issues with noise and I think it's too big."

But there has also been significant support for the replacement mosque, with 63 letters backing the plans and a petition of 276 signatures calling for it to be built.

Al-Farooq secretary Dr Mohammed Asghar said: "The mosque is needed because on Fridays we get very crowded at the moment, with between 150 and 200 people, which means sometimes people have to pray in the yard outside."

Officers recommending the plans be refused permission said that while there was demand for the building, it should not be created at the expense of "inappropriate design". They claimed the building would be overbearing, intrusive and would be "unduly harmful" to nearby residents.

But Dr Asghar said: "I don't think the building is too large. It would have a prayer hall and facilities for funerals which we need. "It would also have space to educate children and an office which we need to store papers as we don't have anywhere at the moment."

The planning control committee will meet next Thursday to decide whether to go along with officers' recommendations to reject the plans or to approve them.

UPDATE
Planning has been passed

Previous Amber Valley BNP organiser speaks out as to why she resigned. http://ambervalleymatters.com/2012/03/the-real-reasons-why-i-resigned-as-organiser/

Councillor Lewis Allsebrook searching for a new political home

Article taken from  http://ambervalleymatters.com

You may have noticed a few changes to this site.  We’re now linking to leading voices in right-wing politics, such as Fox News and Daily Express columnists.  This is because we’re no longer hampered by the crazy ideological sensitivities of the British National Party, who refuse to take inspiration from anywhere but their own shallow pool of members.  Accordingly the header to the site has also changed, removing the BNP logo.

We intend to keep this site to present right-wing patriotic opinion on local and some national issues.  The site no longer supports the local British National Party. I along with a sizable group of local patriots have decided to leave the shambolic local British National Party and search for a new political home.

This comes about after a long running battle with the stubborn minded local and regional BNP officials came to a head when I attended the East Midlands Regional Organisers (EMRO) Meeting this week .  Geoff Dickens the Regional Organiser and Paul Hilliard (Sub-Regional Organiser for Derbyshire) had assumed that come what may I would continue to support the party.  It would be a fair gamble, I have invested a great deal of my time, money and skills over the past five years, ending immigration and withdrawing from the EU are things I strongly believe in, so it certainly wouldn’t be easy to walk away.  However the decision is made a great deal easier when you are publicly attacked by a party official, a fellow councillor time and again and nothing is done about it.

I walked into the EMRO meeting and was immediately confronted about a fundraising booklet that I’d agreed to design.  That was before I found over 20 articles on Cliff Ropers blog attacking my character.  Geoff Dickens asked where the booklet was, to which my answer was they wouldn’t be getting it, because I’m finished with the BNP.  Indeed why would I put my efforts and skills forward for a party that allows me to be publicly lied about by it’s officials?  I asked for regional and even national officials to intervene six months ago.  I wanted a statement published to overturn the slanderous attacks on my character.

For nearly a year now Roper has derided good local patriots on his blog and spouted a Socialist far left extremist version of nationalism (national socialism?). He’s publicised our local suppliers, exposed local members who wrote under pseudonyms on websites in a tactic not dissimilar to those who leaked the membership list, and fuelled the opposition with ammunition to fire at the BNP.  Cliff clearly has a massive problem with me, having described me as disgraced, immature, hypocritical and a liar. To this day I don’t understand his reasons why, he has never said a bad word to my face, I only know as much as anyone else who’s read his blog.  When I originally sent Cliff’s slurring articles to Geoff Dickens, his reaction was “he will never stand for the BNP again so long as I’m Regional organiser.”

The worst articles have now disappeared from Ropers blog, but are still found on the Amber Valley Labour blog.  Cliff has refused to apologise or to retract his lies. Geoff Dickens now takes the view that I should just get on with it, saying we need to be “bigger than this.”  I don’t agree with that, if I sit back and say nothing, then stand on a candidate list alongside someone who’s published so many lies about me, it would be like pretending his lies are true.

The first time Cliff had a public rant he went independent for 5 days, he said it was because I had ran a campaign of harassment (what tosh).  The truth is Cliff’s wife, Emma Roper who was Fundholder at the time and tasked with sending out invitations, failed to send out letters and neither of them were attending the local branch meetings.  We had Adam Walker speaking and he’d driven over from County Durham. When he arrived Emma’s blunder meant he only had an audience of 20 members, it wasn’t the first time this had happened.   For this reason I wanted a more reliable person to fulfil the role who had better literacy skills.  Cliff’s wife didn’t take the news very well and they set about finding a new Organiser to replace me, that was last summer.

However when Debra Purdy offered to step into the role of organiser I was relieved because it meant my time would be freed-up a little, and said I’d support her.  Soon after this an e-mail I sent was mis-interpreted, which was a submission for reimbursement of the 2011 elections costs, I also included extra costs that I wasn’t charging the group for which caused the confusion (I had paid for the whole election campaign and the group had contributed nothing at this point).  Cliff thought I had a bitter taste in my mouth after standing down from the organiser role and assumed I wanted to bankrupt the group, this is when he resigned from the BNP group on the council.

At a meeting to resolve matters I explained the situation fully, Cliff decided to re-join the group on the council and promised to write a retraction of the lies he posted about me on his blog.  Part of his problems it seemed were that he didn’t like being Deputy to a younger man, so I told him if he wants to be Leader of the group he’s welcome to it.  For me the titles never meant anything and were simply a formality when filling out the council form to get access to a room at the council, where the agenda can be discussed before meetings.  After all it’s a group of only two, on the form one person is leader another deputy.   Having what he wanted Cliff retracted some of his lies but to save face refused to make a full u-turn of what he’d said.

I decided to be “bigger than this” and drew a line under the matter, thinking things were resolved.  Months later when I checked back into Cliff’s blog I found tirade after tirade, attacking me on every occasion I’d come in to contact with him.  Everything from a non-political fundraising evening we attended in Ilkeston through to council meetings had become fair game for him.  I unsuccessfully tried to contact him so decided to complain to Regional Officials that he was at it again and things had got worse. This is when I forwarded the offending articles to Geoff Dickens who was at the time disgusted.  The articles were taken down (after Labour had picked up on them), but this time not even a half-arsed public apology, not even a private one.

Removing the offending content was good enough for regional officials, and again the finger was now pointed in my direction to be “bigger than this.” This time I was not prepared to draw a line under matters and carry on without a shred of remorse from Roper.

For a while we decided to get on with things hoping Regional Officials would see sense.  We ran two successful meetings in October and November, by this time Debra the new organiser had came to same conclusion that I did and replaced Cliff’s wife with a more capable Fundholder.  Emma the old Fundholder was livid about this and rang round members telling them to boycott the group fundraising meetings.  Despite them we raised attendance figures and fundraising income went up.  Nevertheless realising the Roper’s will not reform and that Regional Officials Paul Hilliard and Geoff Dickens were going have him foisted upon Amber Valley at the next election, we decided to cancel a big Christmas fundraising event we’d been planning.  Why should we continue to raise money to pay for a candidate that has brought the local party in disrepute like never before?

For months I have told my own local supporters who’ve wanted to retaliate, not to!  I wanted to give enough time for the matter to be resolved internally.  Knowing that anything I or my supporters did would come under attack on Cliffs blog, and I couldn’t retaliate without damaging the party I lost the will to continue working for the party. I decided I would walk away quietly by not standing in next May’s election.  I told Geoff and Paul about this at the end of November.  They wrongly took the view, I’d be back.  I asked them to let me go quietly and was explicit in saying I don’t want to see my name on Cliffs blog again in any shape or form.  I had previously been very clear in an exchange with Cliff about this too.

I was therefore very annoyed to read my name at the top of a Hall of Shame on Ropers blog.  It was to do with a council vote on the Ripley Gateway, you can find my reasons for voting the way I did here.  Needless to say Roper had voted the opposite way to myself.  Seeing my name on his blog again is a small thing but this was the straw that broke the camels back. Cliff had not said a word to me about his voting intension prior to the meeting and then lampooned me for voting of my own accord.

When I spoke to my local supporters, they were again incensed and wanted to retaliate (after all some of them have been publicly denounced on Ropers blog too).  I told them I would explain my Ripley Gateway decision on Amber Valley Matters, but that wasn’t good enough now with no internal resolution in sight local members wanted payback.  I said okay then ‘no holds barred,’ and Truthseeker22 started giving Cliff and his small band of wreckers a taste of their own medicine.

I’ve even linked to the new Derby Patriot site on the Amber Valley Matters front page.  It’s not my style, but certainly worth a visit if you want a laugh.  Truthseeker describes Cliff Roper as Cllr SAD, what they mean by this is he wasn’t appointed by the BNP as Leader of Group on the council, he appointed himself when I handed him the council form with my signature on it with title boxes left blank.  My handing Cliff a blank form is what he means when he says he’s been “appointed.”

Since taking on the group Leader position, Cliff has not imparted his opinion on council agenda items at all, showing no leadership.  It seems I’m expected to visit his blog to deduce his voting intentions, but even that is lacking in opinion.  Take his two liner article on Police Enquiry Office closures, we’re made aware that the offices are closing but what does he think about it?  All he tells us is that the closures will save Derbyshire Police £500,000 /annum, I assume he thinks that’s a good saving.  Personally I don’t think taking the police further away from our community is good at all.  I can’t wait for the opportunity to change the system in November so that elected Police Commissioners are making these types of decisions.

The trouble caused primarily by Cliff Roper and cravenly backed-up by Regional officials who fear he’ll throw off the whip again, sadly led to Debra Purdy the new organiser resigning from the role.  At every step she’d been undermined by Regional officials, whether it be on candidate selection on just simply the organisation of local activities.  In her absence a local BNP branch meeting was recently cobbled together, although for some strange reason I believe it took place in Broxtowe instead of Amber Valley.  I can’t comment on that my invite must have been lost in the post, either that or Emma Roper who I believe has been made group Secretary is as inept as before.  Needless to say whenever Debra or I ran meetings all members were welcome.  Possibly if we’d frozen the Roper’s out in October and November our meetings would have been better attended? From what I hear freezing us out didn’t help them, and attendance figures were lower than ever!

Anyway getting back to the EMRO meeting, in actual fact I wasn’t there long.  After announcing that I was finished with the BNP Geoff Dickens very abruptly said “If that’s the case, you will have to leave!”  I’d not even sat down at this point, taken aback I simply said, “yes fine” and started to walk out.  As I was walking away, Geoff sat at the head of the table of organisers and officials suddenly said “Before you go. Can I just ask why?!” 

As though Geoff was oblivious of the events of the past year, I couldn’t believe the question I was being asked. I was furious and although I remember my next words fairly clearly, it probably came out as an angry snorting rant.  I remember saying, “you know why Geoff? because I’m sick to death of seeing my name emblazoned across blog sites, spreading all sorts of slander, and yes Cliff I’m talking about YOU. You smarmy……..” I swore in the words that followed and went a bit incoherent, it wouldn’t make good reading. 

Geoff then made apologies for Cliff’s writings and sighted one video I recorded and posted on the web during the leadership contest as being just as bad.  In fact the only personal attack I made during the contest was to describe Andrew Brons’ speeches as a “long yarn” and presented a 5 minute question and answers clip.  The video did result in one “organiser” quitting, that person had not managed to stand a single candidate in last May’s local elections for Ashfield, so he was obviously a massive loss to the party.  That one video clip I posted, in Geoff’s eyes amounts to the same as twenty odd articles on Cliff’s blog attacking my character personally, and many more attacking Nick Griffin.  I’ve never had a problem with anyone supporting Andrew Brons, as long as I was allowed to take the opposite view.  In the leadership contest I kept my commentary to the candidates running for Leader, Cliff however fixated his attack on me.

Geoff suggested that I go outside and speak to Cliff and Paul Hilliard.  For me it was too little too late for that, Geoff’s short, abrupt, stubborn manor proves nothing will change in the BNP and if your views are extreme enough you’ll get away with murder.  I walked away.