I think that banks (?all) offer a facility to prevent deposits being made to an account other than via special arrangements.  Or am I just remembering a Dick Francis novel?

 

Jim Whitaker

 

 

I am still interested to know if anyone has any views on the scenario that I sketched.

What would a politician do if someone were making unauthorised deposits into his or her account?  From what I understand of the discussion, it is not illegal to deposit money into someone's account ( no issue of preventing a crime or detecting a crime) and the data protection would not allow the politician to know who put the money into their account (as the article claimed and other people have affirmed on this list).  

Such a scenario appears to be completely legal and viable according to data protection principles.

Politicians would love this because they could claim did not know who put the money in their account and Data Protection does not allow them to find out, yet the money is there.  The lobbyist benefits because they could deny that they put the money in the account or they could claim credit for someone else's largesse.

If someone were less well intentioned they may put the money in the account and then claim that any subsequent decision was influenced by the decision. How would the politician be able to deny the connection?  The money was in their account before the vote, whether they knew it or not, and the vote took place.

Me thinks there is a serious possibility for shenanigans all of which would be completely acceptable from a DPA point of view but not from, I hope, the legislation surrounding political donations.  However, who is to say that an anonymous direct debit into someone's account is a political donation?

Curious.

Lawrence







Lawrence W. Serewicz
Policy and Partnership Manager
Corporate Development Unit
Wear Valley District Council
01388-761-985
Ext. 311

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