Stephen Ryan reports:
Lake Macquarie City Council has escaped a penalty after one of its employees forwarded a woman’s personal details to a man who then harassed the woman with threatening text messages, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal was told.
The woman wrote a letter of complaint to a council manager in July 2008 about a large vehicle that was parked in her street, tribunal member Stephen Montgomery said recently.
A council employee read the letter two months later and forwarded the details of the letter, including the woman’s personal details, to the owner of the vehicle who was also the employee’s ex-partner.
The man then sent a number of threatening and abusive text messages to the woman, causing her great distress and illness, the tribunal heard.
Read more about the case on The Newcastle Herald and then tell me if you think the council should have been penalized.
Thanks to a reader who sent in this link.