Mark Turner has been very vocal against our applications. He gave evidence at our hearing, where he confessed to stealing alcohol as a child and drinking it on Goring Gap and then after of Facebook. Listen here.

But he completely excelled himself in the art of dishonesty. After we appealed our licencing rejection to the Magistrates Court, we updated Simon Jones, Head Of Licencing at Worthing Borough Council (in confidence). Simon in turn updated (without our agreement, knowledge or permission) Mark Turner. Mark Turner then betrayed that trust, forged a press release on behalf of Worthing Borough Council and then published this on Facebook. Fraud is fraud however you look at it.

We were obviously shocked when we were alerted to see information, we believed we had passed in confidence to Worthing Borough Council, published on Facebook as a press release.

Once we found out we alerted Simon Jones who in turn requested Mr Turner to take down his post. Not before his close friend and associate Julie Charalambous had republished the posting on Facebook. Thousands of people potentially saw the fraudulent press release.

We were obviously upset confidential information had been handled this way and complained to Arun District Council.
After an investigation they exonerated Mark Turner. It is apparently acceptable for Arun Councillors to commit fraud, fabricate press releases on behalf of neighbouring councils and then publish these on Facebook.

The matter has now been referred to the Local Government Ombudsman for an independent review.