A self-styled 'King of Scrap', who has forked out thousands of pounds to place a 'Vote Tory' advert on the front page of today's local rag, hired a convicted paedophile at his Havant taxi firm, Spotted Portsmouth can exclusively reveal.
Michael Nobes, 55, who sells rust buckets at his Farlington based firm, Richmond Motors, also co-owns Andicars, a Havant private hire taxi operator, which employed disgraced ex-teacher and convicted paedophile Andrew Hillary just seven months after his release for child sex offences.
Ironically, the 'Vote Tory' ad, which Nobes, of The Avenue, Fareham, placed prominently on the front page of today's Portsmouth Evening News, appears directly below a headline on another convicted paedophile, army cadet captain Alexander Smith.
When Andicars employees discovered that their Tory boss had hired 55-year-old Southsea paedophile Hillary to work alongside them there was naturally outrage.
One employee said, "I’m disgusted that I had to work in the same building as this man.’
She added, "He should never have been allowed to even gain employment or access to people’s personal information.
"Andicars failed their staff and customers and contractors by failing to do the correct checks."
Hillary worked for Andicars for six months before he was forced to resign after his position became "untenable". It is not know whether Hillary and Nobes, both 55, had connections prior to working at Andicars.
A further irony is that Tory Prime Minister Theresa May herself managed to "lose" over 100 files relating to serious paedophile allegations in Westminster, during her time as Home Secretary.
The then Home Secretary, Theresa May, faced criticism on the publication of an independent review of the handling of the 1980s Dickens dossier of serious allegations of child abuse.
The review by Peter Wanless, chief executive of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, confirmed that crucial Home Office files relating to a dossier submitted by the former Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens are still missing.
The dossier – a series of letters to several home secretaries over several years containing allegations of child sex abuse – are among 114 Home Office files that 'went missing' during May's time as Home Secretary.
Theresa May refused to face the House of Commons when the report was published, choosing to issue a written ministerial statement rather than answer questions in the house.
A Westminster insider at the time said, “For the Home Secretary to not come to the house to answer questions on a matter of this level of public concern but instead to sneak this report out quietly just ahead of a parliamentary recess is shameful.”
