A mother took a council to court yesterday after it used surveillance powers designed to combat terrorism to establish whether she had lied to get her children into a “good” school.

Jenny Paton, her partner and three children were followed for nearly three weeks by officers from Poole Borough Council, using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa). They wrongly suspected that she did not live in the school’s catchment area.

Speaking before a two-day hearing of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, Ms Paton, 40, poured scorn on the council’s actions. She said: “Some of the operational aspects are ludicrous and completely outrageous and I think we all need protecting from the way local authorities are using Ripa. This is about saying ‘no more’. Let’s have more safeguards and better scrutiny.”

She asked why the officials, if they doubted her story, did not knock on her front door and speak to her.

James Welch, a lawyer from Liberty, which is representing Ms Paton, said: “We are asking this tribunal to declare that the surveillance powers used to watch Ms Paton were unlawful. This is not about the money. It’s about the legal principle.”

It is alleged that a council official made notes documenting the whereabouts of Ms Paton and her partner, Tim Joyce, to find out whether the family lived at an address in the catchment area for Lilliput First School, Dorset.

Ripa was introduced in 2000 to define when covert techniques, such as secret filming, could be used by police, local councils and benefit fraud teams.

The powers have been used almost 50,000 times by public authorities such as local councils and the health service since 2002. After public alarm the Government is about to curb the powers that councils have gained under Ripa.

Local authorities have used legislation intended to tackle terrorism and serious crime to deal with minor offences such as dog fouling. Conway council in Wales used the Act to spy on a worker who claimed to be sick, and Kensington and Chelsea council in London used it to monitor the misuse of a disabled parking badge.

Under reform plans, set out yesterday, junior council officials will lose their power to authorise surveillance operations on behalf of local authorities. There are, however, plans to extend its use to allow officials to trace parents who refuse to pay child support.

Investigators will be given access to the phone and internet records of thousands of fathers who do not co- operate with the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.

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