A FIREFIGHTER who anonymously called the police on ex-chief fire officer Stewart Edgar has revealed he has “gone through hell” after the police mistakenly exposed his identity to his colleagues.

Former chief fire officer Stewart Edgar resigned from Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service (GFRS) last year after an internal county council investigation found he undersold a service-owned Land Rover thousands below the market value, later buying it for himself.

Tom Oakes, who made the call to Gloucestershire Constabulary last year, has exclusively revealed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that police mistakenly passed the file to the fire service with his name on it, despite the fact it supposed to be an anonymous process.

The Constabulary’s response to Mr Oakes’ complaint has been revealed to the LDRS, showing that the actions of the officer who handled Mr Oakes’ allegations was a “genuine mistake made in pursuance of legitimate aim”.

The document said that the constable who mistakenly identified Mr Oakes did so to “determine which organisation held primacy for investigating the allegations”, followed by a police apology to him for the data breach.

Mr Oakes requested of the police the identities of his fire service colleagues who knew it was him, but because those colleagues then declined to be revealed, the police could not provide their names.

Gloucestershire Constabulary rejected Mr Oakes’ appeal after he made an official complaint to them.

A police spokesman said:  “We have apologised to the complainant for the distress the inadvertent disclosure caused and we are sorry that this happened.”

An investigation into the sale of the 4×4 is ongoing, a file has been handed to the Crown Prosecution Service and no one has been charged.

‘SHOCKING TREATMENT’

Mr Oakes revealed he has gone through months of ‘hell’ as a result of the breach by Gloucestershire Constabulary.

He said the error opened him up to possible harassment and bullying, although he confirmed he has not endured any.

Mr Oakes, who has served as a firefighter for GFRS for 13 years, said the police’s treatment of him was “shocking”.

He said: “The last four months have been horrendous, I’ve been through all sorts.

“A month after I put in the criminal complaint, I was called by the police and they started off apologising to me and they informed me that instead of investigating it accordingly, my information had been handed straight to GFRS. They exposed me completely to my employer.

“At the time, they told me it was given to two individuals within GFRS. I asked initially who these people were. I’m going into meetings with these people, so it’s putting me under a bit of scrutiny. I didn’t know who these people were. I didn’t know who to trust and who not to trust. It wasn’t that bad initially.”

Mr Oakes explained when he made an official complaint to the police, he met them and asked to know who within GFRS knew it was him. The officers who met with Mr Oakes told him they had to ask for their permission first.

He said: “I sort of understood it, two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s the police’s fault, not theirs. I didn’t like it. Then it got a bit of a twist through the complaints procedure.

“They admitted it was a data breach. They said ‘we have gone back to the individual and they’ve refused to give their identity’. That’s what tipped me over the edge. I thought ‘why would somebody refuse that’? Because at that time GFRS was the innocent party in this, it was the police who had given my information over. But I started wondering why they wouldn’t let me know who knew about it.”

Mr Oakes said the stress of the situation has led to him taking time off work.

Asked why he called the police on Mr Edgar, Mr Oakes said: “I thought somebody had to step in and do it. It’s whether who had the balls to do it. When I did do it, the police just made it worse.”

WHAT THE POLICE SAID

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “On July 3 last year the force received a report in connection with an allegation into the sale of a Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service vehicle.

“Following this, information was shared with an individual at Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service. The complainant was contacted to make them aware as soon as this mistake was realised. Subsequently a complaint was received and following a thorough investigation by the constabulary’s Professional Standards Department, this error was found to be a genuine mistake which was made with the best intentions in order to try and investigate the allegation.

“We have apologised to the complainant for the distress the inadvertent disclosure caused and we are sorry that this happened. This complaint was dealt with by way of local resolution and the complainant informed of the outcome. This outcome was subsequently appealed to the Independent Appeals Officer and the appeal was not upheld.

“The constabulary strives to protect the private data of individuals and all staff complete mandatory training in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.”

WHO IS STEWART EDGAR AND WHAT HAPPENED?

Stewart Edgar was the Chief Fire Officer at GFRS from 2014 to mid-2018.

The role made him one of the most senior public servants in Gloucestershire, with a £125,000 salary. In 2018, Mr Edgar was awarded an OBE by the Queen for 27 years of service to local government.

Mr Edgar had many responsibilities within the fire service, one of them being overseeing the tendering process.

Last June, an internal investigation by Gloucestershire County Council triggered by a whistleblower forced Mr Edgar to step down from his top job.

The county council’s chief executive, Peter Bungard, later revealed that Mr Edgar bought himself a fire service-owned Land Rover worth thousands of pounds for £500 through a company he has links to.

Edgar handed the company the cash after accepting its £500 offer for the 4×4 so he could get it for a fraction of its value of up to £8,000.

Mr Edgar rejected a second, higher bid for the 15-year-old Land Rover Discovery, although that offer was made after a set deadline, and accepted the lower amount.

Mr Bungard said at the time Mr Edgar’s actions resulted in a “loss of trust” and showed “poor judgement”.

Mr Edgar’s replacement, Wayne Bowcock, has been in post as chief fire officer at GFRS since early 2019.