Another reason way I.D. cards are a bad idea

If any one out there was still labouring under the illusion that I.D. cards are a good idea and that only crims have anything to worry about then think again.

Vendetta waged by jealous policeman - Nick Britten at The Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 16/05/2006)

A jealous police inspector who abused his position to wage a vendetta against a man he suspected of having an affair with his wife was given 240 hours community service yesterday.

Mark Hession, 41, became obsessed by 35-year-old Stuart Edwards and used his rank to order colleagues to carry out checks on him on the police national database.

Having got the personal information, he forged and sent him a bogus parking fine and a notice of prosecution for driving through a red light.

Hession faces demotion and disciplinary action, although his solicitor said he intended leaving the police.

Sentencing the officer, Mr Justice Mitting said that Hession had acted "purely out of revenge and spite" and he had considered sending him to jail.

Stafford Crown Court heard that after Hession's wife, Kate, admitted that she was seeing Edwards, the West Midlands police inspector telephoned him and warned him he "can be and am a nasty person".

Mr Edwards, who is single, told the jury he only had a "platonic" relationship with Mrs Hession, their friendship lasting between Christmas 2004 until April 2005.

The court heard that three months later, on July 1, Edwards received a notice of prosecution accusing him of driving through a red light in his home town of Walsall.

Four days later he was sent a penalty notice for a parking offence, allegedly committed in Walsall on August 5, even though he insisted he had been nowhere near the area all day.

Mr Edwards "immediately thought the two allegations must be linked" and contacted the police.

An inquiry showed that Hession had used his rank to ask colleagues at the police station to run checks on Mr Edwards through the national computer, obtaining personal details.

After a five-day trial, he was found guilty by the jury of two charges of misconduct in a public office.