An extraordinary threat to the privacy of Christchurch clients of Relationships Aotearoa has been revealed this morning. A callous, grasping commercial landlord was trying to leverage money out of liquidators PriceWaterhouseCoopers by refusing them permission to remove and secure a roomful of sensitive files.
The landlord, Les Rawlings, had allowed a freelance journalist access to the records, presumably in a bid to strong arm the liquidator. PWC say they communicated immediately they took over with the 30 landlords across the country in order to secure and uplift the files held in the various buildings RA leased. It appears Rawlings had seized on this situation as an opportunity to make money that he wouldn’t normally be able to get under a liquidation. There are very few polite words to describe this kind of manipulative behaviour.
Also behaving despicably is the journalist, Beck Eleven. She accessed the site, took photos and then had the temerity to post this on her blog:
“On a personal note, I am sorry if this causes distress to people who have used the service and fear their files were left in the open. However, I believe this kind of privacy breach must be exposed so it doesn’t happen again.”
Get that? She’s the one exposing the clients to risk, she’s a party to the privacy breach, but she’s sorry if it causes “distress”. Still, at least she’s got one close supporter. Her uncle; the landlord Les Rawlings!
This situation sucks. Minister Anne Tolley should apologise to the RA clients this morning or she should be gone by lunchtime.
Destroying Relationships Aotearoa was her doing and she was told in no uncertain terms that there could be considerable harm to the vulnerable clients of RA at the time she closed them down. And this morning, that harm has been visited on them by a rapacious landlord and a disingenuous journalist.
My heart goes out to the clients of Relationships Aotearoa. They have been very badly let down and I can only imagine the horror they are feeling this morning. Happily, after bringing in lawyers, PWC have been able to secure the files. But they would never have been in this situation if it wasn’t for the half arsed foolishness of Minister Tolley.
In the TS post linked to above is this line:
Time will tell but I suspect that the next few weeks is going to show the transition process to be a colossal f*&k up.
Yep. Never a truer word said.
Shame on the landlord. Shame on the journo. Shame, shame, shame on the Minister.
Re: the post title. It’s a song by the Dead Kennedys. Please don’t actually lynch the landlord. He may be an arse, but that would be going too far.
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