Saturday, January 29, 2005

Busted by his loyalty card

The discussion in Slashdot referred to in my previous post (PIPEDA and Canadian Privacy Law: Loyalty card almost leads to wrongful conviction for arson) led me to the following story:

A magistrate in the UK was investigated for theft of a watch that he "found" in a Tesco store. When he brought it in to be serviced, the jeweller looked up the serial number and found it was reported "lost or stolen". The magistrate said he bought it at a bric-a-brac store, but his loyalty card gave him away: it showed he had been at the Tesco store within two hours of the rightful owner, who lost it there.

Telegraph News Magistrate fined for keeping lost Rolex:

"...Inquiries with Tesco, through its Club Card loyalty scheme records, and receipts of purchases showed Rowlett had been in the shop within two hours of Mrs Scott...."

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