Professional - Lambeth suspends third IT chief

Lambeth Council has suspended its head of IT strategy following an investigation by Computing which discovered that he was a former head of the CCTA who had been jailed for fiddling his expenses.

Alan Healey, Lambeth's #54,000-a-year business development manager, failed to declare he had a criminal conviction when he was recruited in August 1996.

He was sentenced to four months in prison in 1991 for falsifying claims for #900 in expenses while he was earning #50,000 a year as head of the government's IT advisory agency.

The development will embarrass the London borough which has sacked two previous heads of IT over disciplinary matters. A council insider said: 'At the time we were glad to have attracted someone with his experience.'

Healey is now under investigation by Lambeth's corporate anti-fraud team which was formed in March 1996 to rid the council of its image problems.

Lambeth sacked its #65,000 IT director Geoff Steggals in October 1993 for accepting hospitality from ICL. He had recommended buying a #13m ICL SX 51020 mainframe to upgrade an existing ICL mainframe. This was deemed unnecessary by the district auditor.

Steggals' successor Gary Moss was made redundant in November 1996 after a 20-month suspension while the council investigated unspecified disciplinary matters.