MP subjected to 6-month '£100,000' police racism probe for telling man he is 'unkempt'



Tim Loughton said Kieran Francis of Romany Gipsy descent was unkempt

He described Mr Francis as 'whingeing, self-serving, poisonous'



Dispute began after claims Mr Francis used human faeces on allotment



Kieran Francis, a Romany Gipsy, was called 'unkempt' by MP Tim Loughton

A former Government Minister has been subjected to a ‘humiliating’ six-month racism investigation by police after describing a voter who claims to have a Romany Gipsy background as unkempt.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton was summoned to a police station where he was questioned under caution by detectives for 90 minutes.

The MP, an Education Minister at the time, had to mingle with drug dealers and was asked if he could read or write or had mental health problems, an experience he said was ‘unsettling and intimidating’.

The investigation was sparked by a strongly worded email in which Mr Loughton backed his local council’s description of someone he considered a troublesome constituent.



In the email, the MP told the constituent, Kieran Francis, that he agreed with the description of him as ‘unkempt’.

But Mr Francis claimed this was racist because he has ‘Romany Gipsy origins’ and said his MP was ‘being disrespectful’ by calling him ‘dirty’.



Mr Loughton later made clear to the police he had no knowledge of Mr Francis’s background.

During the investigation, which is likely to have cost taxpayers up to £100,000, Mr Loughton’s staff were also interviewed and hours were spent trawling through archives for evidence before it was abruptly dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service last month.

The 50-year-old MP for East Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea yesterday said he would be demanding an explanation from Sussex Chief Constable Martin Richards.

He said: ‘I am very angry that time and money has been wasted in pursuing what was clearly a vexatious and malicious complaint that had no substance.



'It has been very worrying for me and my family. I have never experienced anything like this before so the prospect of a criminal charge has undermined my ability to do my job. It is a huge relief it has been dropped.

‘I have enormous respect for the police. But this has knocked my confidence in the police and made me wonder whether there are certain elements for whom political correctness has become too much of a driving force.



'Because of the merest hint of something to do with racism and the sensitivities about travellers, the police go into overdrive.’

‘I am very angry that time and money has been wasted in pursuing what was clearly a vexatious and malicious complaint...'

Mr Loughton’s ordeal began last August when he was contacted by a Detective Inspector asking for an urgent meeting over allegations of a ‘criminal nature’ by Mr Francis.

The police initially agreed to meet Mr Loughton at his constituency office in Worthing, but the day before they changed the venue without explanation to the custody suite at the town’s police headquarters.

Mr Loughton, 50, said: ‘I had to weave through a group of drug dealers who had just been busted. It was humiliating. Because of who I was, I was told the interview would be done very discreetly.



'A rather embarrassed custody sergeant came in and went through the formalities, including asking me whether I was able to read or write, or had any mental health problems, or if I was on any medication.

‘It was a surreal experience. I was being accused of racism simply because I had defended the local council’s description of Mr Francis as unkempt.

‘I told them everything I knew about Mr Francis. Yet at the end, rather than thanking me for coming in and clearing up any misunderstanding, I was told the investigation would be ongoing. Common sense went out of the window.’

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea described Kieran Francis as unkempt

A document given to Mr Loughton by the police read: ‘Mr Francis states that he is of Romany Gipsy origin and feels that the references made against him within the email are of a racist nature and that the email contains personal insults of a grossly offensive nature.’

The email was sent by Mr Loughton after a dispute between Mr Francis and the local council over an allotment. Unemployed Mr Francis, 42, who lives in Shoreham, was stripped of his plot by Adur council in 2011 after alleged disagreements with other allotment holders and claims he used human excrement on his compost heap, which he denies.

He was then involved in an altercation with the council’s allotment manager, after which the council identified him as a difficult resident.

In an email to Mr Loughton complaining of his treatment by the authority, Mr Francis said he was insultingly described in an official council document as unkempt, although he bathed regularly.

But Mr Loughton wrote back: ‘As regards the specific whinge about being described as “unkempt”, given the meaning of the word as “untrimmed, dishevelled and rough” it strikes me as eminently accurate.’

The MP, who describes Mr Francis as a ‘serial complainer’ and his most problematic constituent, added that the complaint was ‘another example of the whingeing, self-serving, poisonous b******s that seem to have become your hallmark’.

To Mr Loughton’s amazement, the police told him that he may have committed an offence under the Malicious Communications Act 1988, updated in 2003, which outlaws ‘grossly offensive’ email and Twitter messages.

The MP said he had been ‘particularly questioned’ about whether he had any knowledge of Mr Francis’s traveller links, and he had assured the police that neither he nor Adur council were aware of them, particularly as Mr Francis had lived in the same flat for some time.

He said that Mr Francis had regularly contacted his office to make complaints about the council, the local hospital, the benefits agency, the courts and even the police, and often subjected his staff to taunts and bad language, occasionally reducing them to tears.

Mr Loughton said he felt the language he used, which he had never before employed in constituency correspondence, was justified.

He said: ‘I had had enough of this guy. He would ring up and shout down the phone at my poor staff.

‘What he called me was racist and disrespectful. My mother was from a Romany family and my Member of Parliament basically called me dirty.’

‘I felt the council had acted perfectly legitimately and I uniquely decided to use some of his own style of language to reinforce my point.’

Mr Loughton said he and his staff had co-operated fully with the police, ‘wasting days’ trawling through correspondence and emails highlighting Mr Francis’s behaviour.



He added: ‘Why did the police take six months investigating a malicious and vexatious charge which had no merit to anybody with any sense, made by a serial complainer? Why did it take so long to come to a conclusion?’

When approached by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Francis said he had been outraged by the MP calling him ‘unkempt’ and disappointed the investigation had been dropped.

He said: ‘What he called me was racist and disrespectful. My mother was from a Romany family and my Member of Parliament basically called me dirty.’

He denied swearing at the MP’s staff and added: ‘I am always firm but polite when I think something is wrong.’

Sussex police refused to answer questions about the cost or length of the investigation. It said in a statement: ‘An allegation of malicious communication was reported to Sussex Police and was fully investigated in the same way it would be for any member of the public.’