A Bournemouth councillor has served himself right in more ways than one after his being exposed as the mystery author, who had been leaving messages on his local newspaper website praising his own work.
Ben Grower posed as an impartial local resident by registering to the Bournemouth Daily Echo website under an unidentifiable username and posting regular messages congratulating himself on his tireless work for the community.
And when the Daily Echo discovered that the postings were in fact Mr Grower pulling a fast one, the councillor simply dug a deeper hole for himself by denying any wrongdoing and attempting to blame somebody else.
But he was eventually forced to come clean, only to dig his heels in and remain astonishingly unrepentant for deceiving the public.
The councillor claimed that he'd done nothing wrong and would continue to use the same astroturfing tactics, but under a different pseudonym.
Mr Grower will have only himself to blame if he loses his seat at the next local election, not only because his deceitful attempts to boost his reputation backfired but because of the arrogant way in which he responded afterwards.
He has also demonstrated the kind of black-hat tactics that the PR profession frowns upon and which can also tarnish the image of a legitimate and valuable marketing discipline.
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