Vericola
Vericola, according its chief executive Rebecca Todd, is a "business risk management company" offering a "bespoke" service to clients "regarding potential threats" to their businesses. [1]
Contents
Energy giants hire private security firm to infiltrate campaigners
According to communications leaked to The Guardian,
- the energy giant E.ON, Britain's second-biggest coal producer Scottish Resources Group and Scottish Power, one of the UK's largest electricity-generators, have been paying for the services of a private security firm that has been secretly monitoring activists.[1]
- E.ON said it had hired Vericola and another security firm, Global Open, on an "ad hoc" basis as its executives wanted to know when environmentalists were going to demonstrate at or invade its power stations and other premises, as they had done in the past. The E.ON spokesman said it asked Vericola only for publicly available information and if Todd [Vericola's CEO] and her colleagues had obtained private information, they had done so "under their own steam". SRG and Scottish Power [also Vericola's clients] did not comment.[1]
Shortly before The Guardian released the story, Indymedia published a full account of the Vericola exposure. Indymedia published the full company details, the process by which activists gathered evidence about the infiltration and photos of Rebecca Todd. The groups which had been targeted were included, as were the email addresses she and her agents used so that campaigning groups can assess whether they had been infiltrated, and to what level.[2]
Revolving door between undercover policing and the private spying business
A leaked email destined for Gordon Irving, revealed Vericola's information, according to The Guardian. Irving, security director of Scottish Power, joined the firm in 2001 after 30 years in Strathclyde Police where he was head of special branch. [3]
Privately, senior officers claim there are "without question" more corporate spies embedded in the protest movement than police officers. Among their number are former police officers cashing in on their surveillance skills for a host of companies that target protesters, relays the Guardian.[3] The same article goes on to relate
- The company best-known for monitoring protest groups is Global Open, founded a decade ago by Rod Leeming, a former special branch officer who in the late 1990s ran the Animal Rights National Index (ARNI), a clandestine Metropolitan police unit monitoring activists.Global Open claims to have more than 90 clients and maintains "a discreet watch" on protest groups that could damage a firm's reputation. It is understood to have offered to employ several ex-police officers, including the undercover police officer Mark Kennedy, who said he was hired by Rod Leeming as a private investigator last year. Leeming previously claimed never to have met or employed Kennedy.[3]
Company details
COMPANY DETAILS:
VERICOLA LIMITED
WOODLANDS BOURNE LANE
HAM STREET
ASHFORD
KENT
TN26 2HH
Company No. 06555264
Rebecca Todd lists on administrative restoration form:
Mobile = (0)7944 896138
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 04/04/2008
Applied to be struck off register (presumably for not actively trading): 04/08/2009
Company dissolved (after 3 months inactive): 17/11/2009
Administrative restoration (starts trading again): 06/01/2010
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC):
7460 – Investigation & security
7487 – Other business activities
Accounting Reference Date: 30/04
Last Accounts Made Up To: 30/04/2009 (TOTAL EXEMPTION SMALL)
Next Accounts Due: 31/01/2011
Last Return Made Up To: 04/04/2009
Next Return Due: 02/05/2010
Accountants (see separate wiki entry):
HMN Accountants, Woodlands, Bourne Lane, Hamstreet, Ashford, Kent. TN26 2HH
Company no: 05629237
Appointments Record lists Rebecca Louise Todd as Director, Ian David Howes is a secretary of Vericola.
Rebecca Todd is sole shareholder.
Contact Vericola
- Rebecca Todd
- CEO
- Vericola Ltd
- 07944896138
- rt@vericola.com [2]
Investigation
In order to establish which groups were targeted and to what extent, Indymedia propose to compile information on Vericola’s activities. Accounts of any contact, however brief, in person or email with Vericola’s employees can be sent to tactics@riseup.net[2]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rob Evans and Paul Lewis Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists The Guardian,14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Indymedia UK Spying company, Vericola Ltd, uncovered after incompetence,Indymedia website, 14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Paul Lewis and Rob Evans Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranksThe Guardian, 14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
