{{short description|British man (born 1963)}} '''Benjamin Pell''' (also known as '''Benji the Binman''';<ref name=bbctabloidtactics>{{cite news | url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8144039.stm | title = BBC News: Magazine: Tabloid tactics | access-date = 14 July 2009 | last = O'Neill | first = Brendan | date = 10 July 2009 | publisher = BBC }}</ref> born December 1963){{cn|date=September 2019}} is a British man who is known for having raked through the dustbins of law firms representing prominent people in search of incriminating or compromising documents that he could sell to the press.
==Activities== An adherent of Orthodox Judaism<ref name="Leonard2">Tom Leonard [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1388476/Benji-the-Binman-cleans-up.html "Benji the Binman cleans up"], telegraph.co.uk, 22 March 2002</ref> who was once a trainee lawyer,<ref>{{cite journal | last = Bennetto | first = Jason | date = 28 July 2000 | title = Man who scrapes the bottom of the barrel for profit | journal = The Independent | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/man-who-scrapes-the-bottom-of-the-barrel-for-profit-707302.html}}</ref> he (initially)<ref name="Gibb2011">{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/i-should-be-licensed-to-be-the-eyes-and-ears-of-the-public-says-benjie-pell-xb67h252j22|title='I should be licensed to be the eyes and ears of the public', says Benjie Pell|work=The Times|date=21 July 2011|access-date=31 October 2019}} {{subscription required}}</ref> failed his law exams at University College London in 1986 which he was expected to pass.<ref name="Maguire">{{cite journal | last = Maguire | first = Kevin | date = 27 July 2000 | title = Muckraker who feeds off bins of the famous | journal = The Guardian | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jul/27/labour.politics}}</ref> He later gained a third-class degree, but could not gain employment with a law firm.<ref name="Gibb2011"/> Pell pretended to be following a legal career for eight months until his family discovered the truth.<ref name="Maguire"/>
Pell began his activities in uncovering discarded newsworthy documents, classified as theft, around 1997. The documents he found have been involved in several court cases and led to many newspaper stories, including ones involving Elton John, All Saints and the 'cash for questions' libel case between Mohamed Al-Fayed and Neil Hamilton.<ref name="STimes1">{{cite journal | last = Ungoed-Thomas | first = Jon | date = 12 July 2009 | title = Hacked Off: Allegations of phone-hacking unpicked | journal = The Sunday Times | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6690054.ece| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090723170138/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6690054.ece| url-status = dead| archive-date = July 23, 2009}}</ref><ref>Steven Moss [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/12/hamiltonvalfayed.stevenmorris "Fayed 'paid for stolen papers'"], ''The Guardian'', 12 December 2000</ref> He said in 2002, "I was never interested in the political stuff. I was a showbiz animal, and my showbiz stuff was top quality. [...] You'd get more money for a little nib about Hear'Say than you'd get for anything about Gordon Brown and David Blunkett."<ref name="Leonard2"/> In the case of Elton John, Pell had hacked into the computers of organisations connected with the singer and looked through the rubbish of John Reid Enterprises,<ref name="Boggan">Steve Boggan [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/hacker-stole-secrets-of-stars-from-dustbins-1150016.html "Hacker stole secrets of stars from dustbins"], ''The Independent'', 14 March 1998</ref> the company of his former manager.<ref>Pierre Perrone [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/arts-sorry-seems-to-be-the-hardest-word-1159783.html "Arts: Sorry seems to be the hardest word"], ''The Independent'', 13 May 1998</ref> Piers Morgan at the Leveson Inquiry in 2011 admitted buying documents for stories from Pell while editor of the ''Daily Mirror'', including Elton John's discarded bank statements, and said that such behaviour was on the "cusp of [the] unethical".<ref>Andrew Pugh [http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/48472 "Morgan urges Leveson to show more balance to press"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514233902/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/48472 |date=14 May 2013 }}, ''Press Gazette'', 21 March 2011</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-16274015 "Leveson Inquiry: I used Benji the binman, says Piers Morgan"], BBC News, 20 December 2011. Morgan admits this is unethical behaviour in his book ''The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade'' (London: Ebury Press, 2005, p. 185-86). In the clip, Robert Jay's cites this passage during his questioning of Morgan at the Inquiry.</ref> Pell's activity was referred to as "binology".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/blog/2011/nov/29/leveson-inquiry-nick-davies-paul-mcmullan-live|title=Leveson inquiry: Nick Davies, Paul McMullan and Richard Peppiatt appear|first1=Lisa|last1=O'Carroll|first2=Josh|last2=Halliday|date=29 November 2011|work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/dec/20/leveson-inquiry-piers-morgan-live|title=Leveson inquiry: Piers Morgan gives evidence|first=Lisa|last=O'Carroll|date=20 December 2011|work=The Guardian}}</ref>
For seven years, Pell monitored Justice Eady, sitting in on all his cases and forensically analysing his every judgement. Pell said: "Court 13 is not Eady's domain, it's my domain. I hope Eady is terrified of me. He should be."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/watch-out-desmond-benji-the-binman-is-still-after-you-1761228.html|title=Watch out Desmond, Benji the Binman is still after you|date=26 July 2009|work=The Independent}}</ref>
==Documentary and court cases== Pell was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary ''Scandal in the Bins'' (2000)<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130930195639/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b845d5885 "Scandal in the Bins"], BFI Film Forever</ref> produced by Victor Lewis-Smith.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0989704/ "''Scandal in the Bins'' (2000)"], IMDb</ref> Another documentary—reportedly in production at around the same time—produced by Iain Jones, led Pell to claim in 2001 that John Mappin had fraudulently misrepresented his claim to be able to make a movie about Pell, and had "hoodwinked" him out of nearly £80,000.<ref>Conal Walsh [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/may/06/conalwalsh.theobserver "Binman Benji sues jewellery empire heir"], ''The Observer'', 6 May 2001</ref> The following year Pell successfully sued Mappin, whose family founded the Mappin & Webb jewellery firm, and recovered his £77,750; Mappin had said he could commission a "well-connected Hollywood film-maker", but Jones had turned out to be a hairdresser.<ref name="Leonard1">Tom Leonard [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1388275/Benji-the-Binman-wins-back-77500.html "Benji the Binman wins back £77,500"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 20 March 2002</ref><ref>Dan Milmo [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/mar/19/pressandpublishing "'Benji the binman' wins fraud claim"], ''The Guardian'', 19 March 2002</ref> The court ordered Mappin to pay Pell's legal costs and interest on the money he had been given.<ref name="Leonard1"/> According to an interview Pell gave at this time, he ended his regular bin-searching activity in February 2001.<ref name="Leonard2"/>
==Damages==
In 2003, he won damages of £125,000 in an out-of-court settlement from the ''Sunday Express'', which had falsely accused him of providing the IRA with information,<ref>{{cite journal | last = Dyer | first = Clare | date = 5 July 2003 | title = 'Binman' Benji in Bloody Sunday libel win | journal = The Guardian | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jul/05/pressandpublishing.bloodysunday}}</ref><ref name="Bell">{{cite journal | last = Bell | first = Matthew | date = 26 July 2009 | title = Watch out Desmond, Benji the Binman is still after you | journal = The Independent | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/watch-out-desmond-benji-the-binman-is-still-after-you-1761228.html }}</ref> and slander against Mark Watts, the journalist who had verbally accused him of the same act. Watts wrote a book about Pell titled ''The Fleet Street Sewer Rat'', published in 2005. He has been prosecuted himself and was only fined £20,<ref name="STimes2">{{cite journal | last = Chittenden | first = Maurice | date = 13 March 2005 | title = Secrets of a Fleet Street rubbish man | journal = The Sunday Times | url = https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/secrets-of-a-fleet-street-rubbish-man-qxwsgpbxm9x}} {{subscription required}}</ref> due to his claim that he lived off a weekly £10 payment from his father despite the estimated £100,000 a year he was earning from selling documents to newspapers.<ref>{{cite video | title = Scandal in the Bins | medium = Television production | publisher = Associated-Rediffusion Television |date = 2000}}</ref> He has asserted that it was about £25,000.<ref name="Gibb2011"/> He was mentioned regularly in ''Private Eye'', which nicknamed him "Benji the Binman".
==Later life== Pell was regularly found during the 2000s in the Royal Courts of Justice taking notes on libel trials, in which he has a particular interest, and is well known to the King's Bench jurists.<ref name="Bell"/> From June 2017, following the Grenfell Tower fire he took an active interest in the issue of unsafe cladding on high-rise tower blocks affecting 500,000 residents in the UK, using the tribunal system to complain about issues with the building in Slough where he lives.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gibb|first=Frances|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/benji-the-binman-pells-fight-over-grenfell-style-cladding-zxwh9p0pf|title=Benji 'the Binman' Pell's fight over Grenfell-style cladding|work=The Times|date=31 October 2019|access-date=31 October 2019}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
==Death of brother== His older brother, Daniel (Dany), was killed in a road accident aged 21. In reference to this, he once said, "Everything I was asked to do, I would have to do double. It was a sort of way of compensating for the loss of my brother".<ref>{{cite book |last=Watts |first=Mark |author-link= |date=2005 |title=The Fleet Street Sewer Rat |url= |location=London |publisher=Artnik|page=46 |isbn=1-903906-15-6}} </ref>
==References and sources== === References === {{reflist|2}}
=== Sources === * Tim Adams. [https://granta.com/benjamin-pell-versus-the-rest-of-the-world/ "Benjamin Pell Versus the Rest of the World"] {{subscription required}}, ''Granta'', 87:21 (2004)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pell, Benjamin}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of University College London Category:British Orthodox Jews Category:Media law Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Alumni of the UCL Faculty of Laws