Big day in court for GWR

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That's fine, but perhaps the forum mods should reconsider its stance on republishing sensitive personal information. Just because the media have gotten hold of it and published it, doesn't mean its right. Everyone has a right to privacy unless they've committed really serious offences where it's in the public interest to know. Ticketing offences are not in the same league

In my line of work, if I passed on sensitive information to those who have no need to know it, I would be promptly sacked. I don't believe the media should be allowed to either, but that's OT here

It's covered by any number of exemptions under data protection law, and bears no comparison to the publication of the personal data of people you or I might deal with in the course of our jobs. There's an argument for German style restrictions on the publication of personal data, but that raises many other questions.

 

[talltim]

Yes, good point. I recall an ex police officer saying to me once that it was often the case that people committing minor infringements often seemed to be on the 'wanted' list for more serious matters. You might think you would not want to attract unwanted attention but it seems that is not always well thought through by the individuals concerned.

I follow my local traffic cops on Twitter and it seems that a lot of the individuals stopped for minor offences are also commiting other offences (no tax or MOT or insurances, unroadworthy vehicles or quite frequently cloned or stolen vehicles). Like you say, if you were up to no good you would want to keep a low profile, but...

 

[Egg Centric]

I follow my local traffic cops on Twitter and it seems that a lot of the individuals stopped for minor offences are also commiting other offences (no tax or MOT or insurances, unroadworthy vehicles or quite frequently cloned or stolen vehicles). Like you say, if you were up to no good you would want to keep a low profile, but...

Bayes' theorem comes in to this. They find the stupider criminals, so it appears that all criminals are stupid! I'm not convinced at all that major league crims are dumb...

 

[Anahabsh]

In the Dock: Results from court

The following cases were heard at Reading Magistrates’ Court:

www.readingchronicle.co.uk

Looks like GWR are really taking a prosecute first approach at the moment. Lots in Reading Court yesterday , £200 fine, £150 costs plus the ticket price . Some expensive lessons learnt

Would these people get a criminal record also?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Would these people get a criminal record also?

Everyone convicted gets a criminal record, it's just a matter of whether it's disclosed to anybody or not.

All of those convictions are seemingly related to Byelaw 18, which means it's highly unlikely anybody would ever find out about the convictions via a criminal record check, except for potentially an Enhanced check for a particular career or more thorough vetting, but a quick Google search against those names would be interesting for a few years until the search engine results fade away.

 

[Starmill]

It's infact very rare for journalists to visit the courts.

I think that although that's surely true in cases such as these, journalists are much more likely to visit some courts in person.

The one single time I visited the Court of Session in Edinburgh, I was sat behind BBC Lorna Gordon.