8 ***^ Tuesday 6 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
News
The 1 per cent
club: where
they live and
what they earn
By Charles Hymas
HoMe AFFAirS editor
IF YOU earn at least £160,000 a year,
are male and live near or inside the
M25, then you can be assured of mem-
bership of the elite “1 per cent” club.
The characteristics are revealed in
an analysis of tax data by the Institute
of Fiscal Studies (IFS), which provides
the most comprehensive picture yet of
the top 1 per cent of earners in the UK.
To join this club, which numbers
just 310,000 income tax-payers out of
a population of 54 million, you first
need to earn £160,000, rising to
£236,000 for the top 0.5 per cent and
nearly £650,000 to be in the super-
elite 0.1 per cent of top taxpayers.
The group is predominantly male.
Only 17 per cent of the top 1 per cent of
earners are women, which means that
men are more than four times as likely
to be among those with very high in-
comes.
It does represent a rise from 12 per
cent in 2000, but falls back when
comparing gender differences in the
top 0.1 per cent of earners. Men are
nine times more likely to be in this
group than women, at 90 per cent ver-
sus 10 per cent.
The analysis is based on the 650
parliamentary constituencies and
shows that there are just 30 where
more than 2 per cent of adults are in
the top 1 per cent of taxpayers.
Of those, 17, or 56 per cent, are in
London, and the rest are in the south
east of England with two notable ex-
ceptions: Aberdeen South and Hitchin
and Harpenden in Hertfordshire
(which for the research is classified as
the east of England).
Aberdeen owes its status to the mil-
lionaire oil and gas tycoons whose
wealth has formed the bedrock of the
so-called “Granite City”: businessmen
such as Alasdair Locke, who sold the
oil and gas business that he had built
since 1990 for $1.4 billion in 2008. He
is now worth an estimated £230 mil-
lion.
The top 1 per cent of income taxpay-
ers have, however, become more geo-
graphically concentrated in the past
two decades. Half now live in just 65
parliamentary constituencies (52 of
which are in London and the South
East) compared with 78 constituencies
at the turn of the 21st century.
The top five with the highest pro-
portion of earners in the 1 per cent
club are Westminster, Kensington,
Chelsea and Fulham, Richmond Park
and Esher and Walton – all in London.
In the bottom five are Liverpool
Walton, Rhondda, Stoke-on-Trent
Central, Birmingham Hodge Hill and
Kingston upon Hull East, where there
are fewer than one per thousand in the
top earning bracket.
The north-south divide is even
more accentuated among the top 0.
per cent earners, half of whom live in
London.
Robert Joyce, IFS head of income,
work and welfare, attributed the domi-
nance of London to the boom in the fi-nancial sector in the 2000s, before the
2008 crash. However, Will Tanner, a
former Downing Street adviser and di-
rector of Onward, a centre-Right think
tank, said the statistics underscored
how “lopsided” the British economy
was becoming.
“These regional differences not only
generate the kind of political turbu-
lence we have seen in recent years, but
they are also a brake on prosperity: as
Onward’s research has shown, the
more regionally imbalanced an ad-
vanced economy is, the lower its over-
all rate of growth,” he said.
There is, however, some hope for
those who aspire to join this premier
league of 1 per centers as about a quar-
ter are relegated every year and a quar-
ter “promoted”.
“Only around three quarters of peo-
ple in the top 1 per cent in one year will
be there in the next year, while only
half will still be in the top one in five
years,” said the IFS in its report, enti-
tled “The characteristics and incomes
of the top 1 per cent”.<1 (per 1,000)
1-
2-
5-
10-
20+The proportion of the
UK’s income tax paid by
the top 1 per cent of
earnersAberdeen South and Hitchin
and Harpenden, Herts are the
only two constituencies outside
the south east and London
where more than 2 per cent of
the population are in the top
1 per cent of earners.East London has one of the
largest concentrations of
constituencies with the
fewest top 1 per cent earners,
with Barking, Dagenham, East
and West Ham, Thurrock and
Erith all having fewer than
one per thousand.The West Midlands has a
disproportionate number of
constituencies with fewer
than one top 1 per cent earner
per thousand of the
population, including
Birmingham Hodge Hill,
Wolverhampton South East,
Warley and West Bromwich.In the North, areas with more
than 10 top 1 per cent earners
per thousand of the population
include the Cheshire
constituencies of Tatton and
Eddisbury, and Manchester’s
Altrincham and Sale West.Edinburgh constituencies,
North Yorkshire’s Harrogate
and Knaresborough and
Rutland and Melton, and
Hexham in Northumberland
are in the “third” division
with between five and ten
top earners per thousand of
the population.£648,
The amount you need
to earn to be in the
top 0.1 per centThe proportion of top 1
per cent of earners that
are women10pc of top 0.1 per cent
of earners are womenOnly 30 constituencies
have more than 20
adults per 1,000 (2 per
cent) who are in the
top 1 per cent of
earners. 56 per cent of
these constituencies
are in London.£160,
The amount you need to
earn to be in the top 1
per cent%
£160,The proportion of adults
who pay no income taxBritain’s highest earners
Where the top 1 per cent live
SOURCE: THE CHARACTERISTICS AND INCOME OF THE TOP 1%, INSTITUTE OF FISCAL STUDIESNumber of people in top 1 per cent of
income taxpayers, as proportion
of adult population, 2014-No dataShetland Isl.17pc27pc43pcNeighbour ‘terrorised’ retired lecturer with her overgrown plants
Teacher bullied out of his job after scolding pupil for late work
By Daily Telegraph Reporter
A PENSIONER has appeared in court
over a long-running dispute about an
overgrown plant.
Mary De Jong, 67, has been em-
broiled in a four-year bitter row with
her neighbour Stephen Johnston, a re-
tired university lecturer, who claimed
she had “terrorised” him with her
overgrown plants. The court heard
they initially fell out over a shared
courtyard and Ms De Jong reacted by
planting a bush to purposely block his
window.
After refusing to cut it back, in 2017
she was handed a restraining order by
magistrates and ordered to cut it back
and stop pointing CCTV at his house.
But she has now gone on trial at Ex-eter Crown Court for breaching both
aspects of the order.
Lee Bembridge, prosecuting, told
the court that relations between the
neighbours who live around two court-
yards in Topsham, Devon, were amica-
ble until 2015 when there were a series
of criminal and civil proceedings.
At the start of a two-day trial he said:
“It’s hard to imagine anywhere moreserene and idyllic to live: unless you
live next door to Mary De Jong. She
moved in seven years ago and at first
they all got on – but that changed after
a disagreement over the courtyard.
“Her response was to be as unrea-
sonable and awkward as she could. She
planted a bush which purposely
blocked his window and prevented
him opening it fully, despite him ask-ing her to cut it.” Ms De Jong pleaded
not guilty to two charges of breaching
restraining orders.
Mr Bembridge added: “For months
Mary De Jong has been terrorising Ste-
phen Johnston. He has tried to deal
with things reasonably. Mary De Jong
is not a reasonable person. Any reason-
able or rational person would have
moved the camera and the plant – butshe is not a rational person. These
things on their own may seem insignif-
icant, but over the months and years
they have been very distressing and
harassing for Mr Johnston.”
Mr Bembridge said Ms De Jong had
appealed against the restraining or-
ders, but they were upheld by the
crown court and still stand.
The trial continues.By Simon Johnson
A TEACHER at a private school has
been awarded £60,000 after he was
forced to resign for reprimanding a pu-
pil after she handed her work in late.
Daniel Goodey left his job at the
High School of Dundee, which charges
fees of up to £13,650 a year, after he re-
fused to apologise to a girl who had
been late handing in an assignment. An
employment tribunal found that John
Halliday, the school’s rector, held “ex-
tremely threatening and unpleasant”
meetings with Mr Goodey after the in-
cident.
Judge Ian McFatridge ruled Mr
Goodey was bullied out of his job after
he “sighed in frustration” at the school-
girl as she left his classroom in a “teen-age huff ”. The tribunal heard the pupil
was late handing in an assignment and
took exception to being told to work
with a classmate to finish it.
As she left, Mr Goodey, a principal of
religious, moral and philosophical
studies, made an exasperated noise and
told her: “Don’t walk away angry.”
The incident prompted a complaint
from the girl’s mother, who said herdaughter no longer wanted to be
taught by him.
The school investigated and agreed
the girl should not have to attend his
classes.
Mr Goodey was wrongly accused of
unprofessional conduct after he re-
fused to write an apology to her.
The teacher felt he had no option but
to quit and his resignation letterwarned of “serious implications for the
future standards of the school when
teachers become afraid of expecting
pupils to do work set, and concerned
that they may have to apologise for do-
ing their job if a pupil is not happy”.
Judge McFatridge ordered the
school to pay £60,000 to Mr Goodey,
who had 14 years of service, saying:
“There is no doubt in my mind that thedismissal was unfair.” He found that Mr
Goodey had “simply been carrying out
his job” and instead of dealing with the
matter properly, the school had “sought
to bully the teacher into apologising”.
In a letter to parents on Friday, Iain
Bett, the school’s chairman, said the
school was “extremely disappointed”
with the outcome and insisted its lead-
ers had acted fairly and in good faith.Bookies named greyhound
after gambler who stole £3m
By Daily Telegraph ReporterA GAMBLING addict who stole almost
£3 million of his company’s money was
wooed by bookmakers with Wimble-
don tickets and his own greyhound
named after him, a court heard.
Ben Wiley, 29, a former accountant,
defrauded his Essex-based firm DG
Robson of large sums of cash hundreds
of times over three years in order to
place bets.
Southwark Crown Court heard
bookmaker Stan James encouraged
Wiley to gamble by treating him to cen-
tre court tickets at Wimbledon and
naming a greyhound after him. He was
also invited to Cheltenham racecourse
as a guest of the betting firm.
Wiley pocketed £2,939,514.75 be-
tween May 2013 and October 2016,
fraudulently making payments into his
own account before laundering the
money through betting sites.
He was jailed yesterday for three
years and eight months after he admit-
ted fraud by abuse of position and
money laundering. A further count of
fraud was left to lie on file.
Susannah Stevens, his defence law-
yer, said: “There was the lure of free
money, there were messages about cer-
tain free bets. They paid for him to
have extraordinary days out. They
sponsored a dog for him in his ownname and they really went to quite ex-
traordinary lengths to keep him in this
position of spending money that he
couldn’t possibly obtain by legitimate
means.
“He has lost absolutely everything,
he has lost his job, he has lost his career
as an accountant – he will never ever be
able to work as an accountant again.
“He became increasingly addicted
and increasingly desperate. He has lost
his marriage – when his lifestyle went,
so did his life.”
Judge Martin Griffith, QC, agreed
with Ms Stevens but told Wiley the re-
sponsibility laid with him
He said: “’It seems to have pulled the
wool over the eyes of auditors in the
company you were at over a number of
years.
“I am not surprised, in this day and
age, that you were corporately enter-
tained at Wimbledon. You were enjoy-
ing a lavish lifestyle.
“You must have known, as you went
through 300 plus individual frauds in
this time, that what you were doing
was going to be found out. The respon-
sibility for this rests on the punter and
that is you.”
Stan James has now merged with
Unibet, which is owned by large online
gambling company Kindred Group.
The Daily Telegraph contacted the
company for comment.High chair A 12ft steel sculpture of a man on a bench dwarfs a normal-sized man in Sollith,
Cumbria. It was commissioned by businessman Peter Richardson, who died in 2017.NEWS AND STAR/SWNSThe north-south divide is
even more accentuated
among the top 0.1 per cent,
half of whom live in LondonExecutive’s fraud
funded £500-a-day
cocaine habit
AN AIG claims handler who defrauded
the insurance company of more than
£390,000 after developing a £500-a-
day cocaine habit has been jailed for
two years.
James Beaver, 40, worked at the
company’s complex claims department
in Fenchurch Street, London, when he
began making a series of false pay-
ments to his own bank account.
The Old Bailey heard Beaver’s co-
caine habit spiralled out of control after
the death of his young son in 2015.
Between returning to work in early
2016 and his dismissal for gross mis-
conduct in February 2018, Beaver
made a total of 91 payments to himself
amounting to more than £345,000. Af-
ter he was sacked for a separate mis-
conduct allegation, he managed to
make three further payments to him-
self, bringing the total fraud to
£390,478.21. Beaver, of Buckhurst Hill,
Redbridge, pleaded guilty to a charge
of fraud by abuse of position, fraud by
false representation and acquiring use
of criminal property.
Jailing Beaver, Judge Richard Foster
said: “Your life fell apart – you had the
tragedy of your son having a rare form
of cancer and having to suffer the be-
reavement when he died. But many
people in life have bereavement, ill-
ness and tragedy, and none of these are
a reason for doing what you did.”
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