A BRACKNELL man says he is afraid to answer his phone after council chiefs mistakenly sent his contact details to an employee accused of verbally abusing him.
The Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) employee, who was a regular visitor to the next-door neighbour of the man, was heard calling the man a “freak”, “ugly” and saying “he has a horrible life” in an audio clip sent to the News last year.
After being confronted, the employee can be heard boasting to the man's neighbour of her position at BFC, saying in another recording: “I don’t give a flying ****, I work for the council. Let him make a complaint. Bracknell council.”
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The man and his family were forced to moved home in June 2019 due to the alleged abuse and the father made a complaint to BFC in July about the woman.
But in November 2019, BFC’s head of Human Resources told the man his mobile phone number and his email address had been sent to the employee being investigated for allegedly verbally abusing him.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told council chiefs he was worried about his contact details being in the hands of the employee as “this person has already demonstrated a willingness to abuse her position so she could cause maximum distress to my family.”
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Speaking to the News, he added: “The disclosure of the information now leaves me at unease when answering my phone to numbers I don’t know, or that are withheld.
“I do not know when or if I will receive unwanted calls, just like I was never sure when or if I would receive the verbal abuse, noise or threats from my old neighbour.
“I hope the council can learn from this and implement a system that means no personal data is ever used or disclosed on any complaint.”
The data breach came after a form filled in by the man was forwarded to the employee as part of the investigation process.
According to BFC, the employee brought the breach to bosses’ attention and then destroyed the information.
An investigation into this dispute was originally opened in 2018 but was later closed as the family feared their identities would be revealed as part of the process.
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Trish Barnard, Head of HR at BFC, said: “Bracknell Forest Council is aware of an unintended data breach reported to us by a member of staff.
“We offer our sincere apologies for the error leading to the data breach and can confirm that a full investigation has taken place and appropriate action has been taken to improve awareness and business practice to avoid this happening in the future”.
The News understands the investigation into the employee is still ongoing.
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