A council has admitted spying on a family using laws to track criminals and terrorists to find out if they were really living in a school catchment.

 

A couple and their three children were put under surveillance without their knowledge by Poole Borough Council for more than two weeks.

 

The council admitted using powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) on six occasions in total.

 

Three of those were for suspected fraudulent school place applications.

It said two offers of school places were withdrawn as a consequence.

 

Human rights pressure group Liberty called the spying "ridiculously disproportionate" and "intrusive".

 

James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said: "It's one thing to use covert surveillance in operations investigating terrorism and other serious crimes, but it has come to a pretty pass when this kind of intrusive activity is used to police school catchment areas.

 

See whole article here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7341179.stm

hmmm...... its illegal to claim you live somewhere when you dont in order to get your kids into a better school....

 

how else can this be enforced?

This is my local council. Much as I disapprove of people lying about where they live, this sort of surveillance seems ridiculously OTT. If the family are the only people at the address on the electoral register and paying full Council Tax having registered the address as their main home, it can be presumed that they really do live there.

 

Of course David Cameron has refused to condemn people who lie about where they live so perhaps he will denounce Tory-controlled Poole for doing this. I won't be holding my breath though.

This is exactly what I've been talking about... The use of authoritarian, draconian powers (these powers being brought in supposedly to stop Terrorism...) being used against ordinary, law-abiding families... Simply outrageous.. Is it not the case that this particular family already have children at this school, and have done so for years...? What, the school cant look at a map? Or send people from the school, or the local education authority, on an unnanounced home visit to check things out and bring these things out into the open, so the the family can effectively answer any allegations....? They have to go sneaking around do they...?

 

Like buggery they do. There's acceptable and unnacceptable ways of doing things... Strange men in cars spying on mothers and their children is totally beyond the pale....

This is exactly what I've been talking about... The use of authoritarian, draconian powers (these powers being brought in supposedly to stop Terrorism...) being used against ordinary, law-abiding families... Simply outrageous.. Is it not the case that this particular family already have children at this school, and have done so for years...? What, the school cant look at a map? Or send people from the school, or the local education authority, on an unnanounced home visit to check things out and bring these things out into the open, so the the family can effectively answer any allegations....? They have to go sneaking around do they...?

 

Like buggery they do. There's acceptable and unnacceptable ways of doing things... Strange men in cars spying on mothers and their children is totally beyond the pale....

 

but they werent 'law abiding' they were cheating the system.

but they werent 'law abiding' they were cheating the system.

 

Well, actually, has it not been proven that they weren't actually cheating the system.... At least, the one particular family who was interviewed on the news hasn't been caught doing anything wrong.....

 

And, again, you miss the point TOTALLY as per usual... These measures are NOT MEANT to be targeting ordinary people committing relatively MINOR offences (oh yeah, I mean, fibbing to a local council is REALLY up there with trying to blow up a fukkin' plane innit....? :lol: :lol: :lol: ).... An LEA can get the facts without resorting to these sorts of spying tactics by doing what I suggested in my previous post - an unnanounced visit BY THE SCHOOL to a flat or house that a family is claiming to be living in to speak to the family and/or their kids......

 

Whether guilty or innocent, the methods the council are using are unnacceptable and inappropriate, end of story....

i havnt missed the point at all...it just doesnt bother me. again its only people doing wrong that needs to be worried... im not, so they can watch me as much as they want...i couldnt give a damn.

they can watch me as much as they want...i couldnt give a damn.

 

Really....? You wouldn't object to going home and finding a couple of blokes in an unmarked car watching your house and you had no idea who they are or what they were doing in the area...? I dont believe you for a minute mate, I really don't, and if you still had your kids at home and of school age, you sure as hell would object... And dont tell me you've got nowt to hide, or you're somehow pure as the driven snow... You've admitted to "massaging" your taxes in a previous, older thread..... :lol: :P