Vikki Miller finds out how to target music industry executives with ‘white-collar ASBOs’

Camden council made the headlines in June when it successfully stopped Sony UK from flyposting anywhere in England and Wales by threatening the music industry giant with the first “white-collar antisocial behaviour order”. This victory has got other councils and housing associations talking about how to rid estates of flyposting by the same means.

Many large companies try to save money on traditional advertising methods by employing people to put up street posters for them. In the past, councils tried to prosecute these smaller companies under the display and advertisement regulations of the Town & Country Planning Act, but this usually resulted in fines of just £300, which didn’t deter the companies from flyposting.

Now, though, ASBOs present an alternative, and one that directly hits individual record company executives.

Ian Beaumont is a team member on Camden council’s environmental improvement initiative, the Boulevard Project, which brought the action against Sony UK with the council’s in-house lawyers. In order to get an ASBO for flyposting, says Beaumont, you must have solid proof of who is ultimately responsible for commissioning it.

He explains: “Because an ASBO is a civil legislation against a named individual, you have to be sure that you’re accusing the right person, with sound evidence to back you up, or they can bring a defamation case against you.”

Camden council hired a private detective firm to ring Sony and pose as potential flyposters pitching for business to discover who was responsible. As written proof, they kept emails from the detectives posing as flyposters to the person at Sony and written documents, such as invoices for vehicle hire, with the executive’s authorising signature on them.

Go beyond reasonable doubt

It is also important to prove that the person has commissioned flyposting in your area. Camden used photographs and CCTV footage of the flyposters’ vehicles to trace the van back to the hire company and discover who at the record company had authorised its hire, as well as names passed on from ex-flyposters who had been caught.

Once you are completely sure you have the right person, and you have compiled as much evidence as possible, get your lawyer to serve a summons. This will bring about an interim court hearing, as soon as the court schedule will allow, where the judge, if he or she thinks you have a case, will grant an interim ASBO until the formal hearing a few months later.

Camden hired a private detective to find out who at Sony was responsible

This means that the named person is forbidden from commissioning flyposting between that date and the formal hearing.

If posters from that company appear during this period, they will have broken this interim order, and can be fined or jailed.

Prepare yourself mentally for a long, drawn-out process, Beaumont warns. Because the legislation has never been used in this way before, test cases will take longer than “regular” ASBOs.

He advises that you should also prepare your different audiences for what you are about to do. Keep people in your organisation up-to-date with regular briefings, as well as members of the public; flyposting provokes strong public feeling, so it can benefit your image to show them the action you are taking. It’s helpful to prepare comprehensive press briefings because white collar ASBOs have attracted a lot of media attention.

It could also be expensive, he warns, because if you lose the case you will have to pay all your own legal costs, plus those of the accused, and even damages, if the executive decides to bring about a defamation case against you. In Camden’s case, although Sony settled out of court, and offered to pay the costs.

The ASBO team at the Home Office and the environmental campaigning charity, EnCams, may back your case and support you. In Camden’s case, both organisations provided supportive quotes and came to the press briefings; EnCams even issued its own press release in support of Camden.

Finally, Beaumont says, you must have the approval and backing of your superiors. “These are test cases,” he warns, “so you just don’t know how it is going to turn out. The important people in your organisation must be on your side.

“Just remind them about the quarter of a million pounds they will be saving each year and that should win them over.”