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Fraud probe into fake parish council ‘tweets’
The National Fraud Intelligence Unit is looking into Twitter and Facebook accounts by somebody wrongly purporting to be from the parish council.
THE fraud squad has been called in to investigate the apparent illegal impersonation of Leybourne Parish Council on social networking sites. Other tweets, such as this on July
While the Facebook account has only one message, 67 tweets have been made from the Twitter ac- count, which has 38 followers. The parish council, which has been forced to set up a closed Twit- ter account to get accurate informa- tion to residents, says it is handing all of the evidence about the mis- chievous tweeter to police. The Twitter account – @ley- bournepc – has the title Leybourne P Council, an email address and a picture of the village and its logo.
While the account gives details of upcoming council meetings and provided updates on the 17 gypsy caravans who camped up in Castle Way and Lillieburn for almost a week, some of the tweets are delib- erately mischievous.
On July 1, the anonymous user
tweeted: “Late Friday & early Sat- urday morning somebody cut down the Hogweed alongside the back path of the Bomb Hole Thanks We wouldn't have bothered.” The following appeared on July 10: “Parish Council Human Re- sources Committee Meeting Tues- day 15 July 7.15pm, although due to confidentiality we'll probably throw you out.”
30, veer away from the first person: “Have you ever wondered just what our Parish Councillors look like? It says Know your Councillors. But no pictures! Wonder why!” The account has been active since June 27, but despite the efforts of parish council chairman Bob Ulph, tweets were still appearing as the Downs Mail went to press. He said: “There is no way to contact Twitter, other than through a drop-down complaints box, so we are waiting to see what will happen.” Particularly concerning, says the parish council, is that the user has responded to emails claiming to be the parish council.
5 Club mark league and cup double success
TOWN Malling’s U15 team are cele- brating after achieving a historic cricket league and cup double to conclude the 2014 season. Founded in 1827, the club are
steeped in history, with their ground in Norman Road, West Malling, boasting the first recorded game in Kent, in 1705. But history could well record the season of 2014 among its finest, when the U15s took the Mid Kent Youth League title, after fielding a team in this age group for just three years. The side faced a tough final few games of the season and adverse weather meant the final match,
August 2014 No. 208 News
Head passes away
TRIBUTES were paid to MidKent College principal Sue McLeod, who died from a brain tumour.
Bridge relief on way
MORE than £2m of government money will go towards widening a bridge over the M20 at Larkfield, near junction 4. 8
Stones ground boost
FOOTBALL Conference games can now be played on Maidstone United’s 3G pitch – if and when they win promotion.
14 Leader remembered
NEW offices for KCC staff have been opened in Kings Hill and named after the late bor- ough Cllr Mark Worrall.
18 Boats along Medway
SUCCESSOR to River Festival proves a success. 26
Live grenade dug up BOMB scare in village. 30
Obituaries
against Kemsing, had to be postponed – so it was a nail-biter when the two sides finally met at The Old County Ground. Kemsing were not going to
relinquish the title without a fight but struggled, despite some excellent spin bowling early on, and Town Malling claimed the win.
In the cup final, the unbeaten
Town Malling were favourites over the established and traditionally strong Addington Village CC. In a tense and competitive final,
Town Malling took five wickets for just seven runs (S Willett 3, S Eyre 2) to win by eight runs and achieve a historic double.
Town Talk
A MARKS & Spencer food out- let is to open in Snodland. For details see Town Talk in this month’s Downs Mail. The bi- monthly independent magazine is written by and dedicated to Snodland and Halling residents.
OAK AND PINE The Big Yellow Building, St Peters St, Maidstone 01622 691 291
www.lincolnfurniture.co.uk 4 28 Crime Reports 32
A GOAL post was taken from the school sports field in Pound Road, East Peckham.
Parish Councils 40-41
THE church clock stopped work- ing in Birling, where a resident felt the value of their property was being adversely affected by having a Snodland postcode; two evacuation chairs and a defibril- lator were on order in Kings Hill; it was felt bus speeds were being misunderstood in Mereworth, which was being plagued by smelly lorries; police were called to disperse a group of rowdy out- of-village youths in Watering- bury; the large number of daytime bonfires was causing concern in West Peckham.
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