Laptop repair pervert jailed for nine months

Pervert?

Good grief - looking at a picture of a woman in a bikini is enough to justify the label "pervert" these days is it? In which case you have just made all of us "perverts" too by illustrating this story with - a picture of a woman in a bikini!

Do not get me wrong - looking at the private picture should have got him the sack from his job and copying private data coupled with the attempt on the bank account certainly call for jail time, but I see nothing to warrant the "pervert" label.

By JohnAHind on 6 Aug 2010

@John - Look up the definition of pervert. It isn't about sex, it is about being morally corrupt. And that's what this is - you trust your computer and data to be safe, and this was not the case here.

By MJ2010 on 6 Aug 2010

Damn...

Does it mean I'm a pervert too? I like a sight of women in bikinis as well :-(

By Lomskij on 6 Aug 2010

Meesta Dugway!

I repaired a PC for a family friend and found during the enevitable virus check the browser cache was full of "lady boys" (filenames were a give-away). I can't look the guy or his wife in the face to this day.

Would this use of the law have protected Garry Glitter though? He got caught when his PC was sent to PC world for repair and some "pervert" there had a good nose through...

By cheysuli on 6 Aug 2010

I have to agree with the OP. Yes, the guy is undeniably dodgy, but labelling him a 'pervert' is somewhat excessive given the generally understood meaning of the term these days, as opposed to a dictionary definition.

By rpb424 on 6 Aug 2010

Perhaps "Snooper" then

It's slightly a shame that he can't be encouraged to tell people what he did with the bank details - he can't exactly be hanging on to those out of idle curiosity, after all.

By Steve_Cassidy on 6 Aug 2010

Agree with rpb424 and JohnAHind (noting MH2010's rather semantic and irrelevant pedantism). Why use the word "Pervert"? I thought PCPro was a cut above sensationalist tabloid hyperbola. Guess not. Disappointing journalism that detracts from the real story.

By Nodule on 6 Aug 2010

I thought I'd logged onto The Sun website by mistake.

By cynebearne on 6 Aug 2010

Time to do away with comments sections

Sorry, so taking photos off of strangers PCs and storing them in a folder called "Mamma's Jammas" for your own - ahem - "personal" use doesn't make you a pervert? The sooner sites stop giving idiots a soapbox upon which to foist their uneducated/unsolicited views the better. Frankly, I'm more interested in the views of a professional journalist like Barry Collins than an Internet warrior like JohnAHind or cynebearne.

By GillsMan7 on 7 Aug 2010

Isn't 9 months in jail comparatively harsh even if he 'attempted' to break into the bank account? Is this a euphemism for 'actually he broke in and stole money but the bank doesn't want to admit it'?
When you think of the people who get let off with warnings, or that you only get a few years for murder. Did he have lots of previous convictions?

By davidsoap on 7 Aug 2010

Whatever...

I can't believe people who take their computers/laptops into repair shops are so stupid that they think ANYTHING on their computer is private.
This was a straight forward honey trap designed specifically to entrap. Seriously corrupt journalism.

Yes, the young guys who repaired the laptop were morally corrupt, but so were the journalists who set about trapping then, and anyone of the so called 'PC Pro Readers' who complained about people looking at private pictures on their PCs are f"cking idiots.

That level of stupidity is just as damaging to society as this level of moral corruption. It's up there with complaining someone used your cashpoint card and then admitting you'd written your PIN on the back of it.

This sort of journalism lowers the tone British news agencies to the kind of cr@p we expect from the USA.

By mbassoc on 7 Aug 2010

Not acceptable?

I fail to see why the quite lenient words like "that the copying or use of customer’s private and personal information is not acceptable"
would be used when the act was clearly criminal, not just "not acceptable".

Oh, I nearly forgot, another bikini loving pervert here (wink, wink).

By McDragonSI on 7 Aug 2010

@GillsMan7

Frankly anyone who can write a sentence like "The sooner sites stop giving idiots a soapbox upon which to foist their uneducated/unsolicited views the better." without seeing the internal contradiction is in no position to call others "uneducated" or "idiots"!

Congratulations on becoming the exemplar of your own point!

By JohnAHind on 7 Aug 2010

@GillsMan7

Frankly anyone who can write a sentence like "The sooner sites stop giving idiots a soapbox upon which to foist their uneducated/unsolicited views the better." without seeing the internal contradiction is in no position to call others "uneducated" or "idiots"!

Congratulations on becoming the exemplar of your own point!

By JohnAHind on 7 Aug 2010

@JohnAHind - well said sir!

And I agree with the gist of most of the comments above I think 'our Barry was avin a bit of a Sun moment when he writ da headline' :-)
Incidentally, the guy in the first video clip wasn't the guy convicted. So what's happened to this guy? Has he been charged as well?

By rjp2000 on 7 Aug 2010

@mbassoc

I don't agree that this sort of 'Honey Trap' is corrupt journalism, but rather a legitimate way of proving beyond doubt the dubious antics of traders who would otherwise get away with it.

You see this sort of thing reported on TV in other 'repair' industries where, for example, very simple faults are deliberately introduced into cars or central heating boilers or whatever, and the suspect repairers are then covertly filmed trying to vastly 'expand' the job to more than it needs to be.

Without irrefutable proof of these goings on no-one would ever get prosecuted, and I can't think of many better ways of going about it.

By rbools1 on 7 Aug 2010

@mbassoc

I don't agree that this sort of 'Honey Trap' is corrupt journalism, but rather a legitimate way of proving beyond doubt the dubious antics of traders who would otherwise get away with it.

You see this sort of thing reported on TV in other 'repair' industries where, for example, very simple faults are deliberately introduced into cars or central heating boilers or whatever, and the suspect repairers are then covertly filmed trying to vastly 'expand' the job to more than it needs to be.

Without irrefutable proof of these goings on no-one would ever get prosecuted, and I can't think of many better ways of going about it.

By rbools1 on 7 Aug 2010

Poor..

More Tabloid journalism.

Sack him definitely, imprison him for breaking the law yes.. but I can't see anything in this story that justifies 'pervert' as it is currently used in in the gutter press.

I'm amazed you didn't manage to work in 'pedophile' too.

By pinero50 on 7 Aug 2010

Dancing on the head of a pin

Seems to me the pivotal issue here isn't "pervert as it is used in the media": it is rather about consent. Looking at a bikini picture isn't kinky, because by and large you can be fairly sure that the lady in the picture has consented to be photographed. Stealing a private picture removes the element of consent. In my book, it hardly matters what you do with someone, provided they consent to it. Both nicking nudie pix, and nicking banking details, ar linked together by a disregard for the consent of the lawful owner. Whoops: down the steps, a good nick and no argument. As for the point about people taking their rude stuff off before they get the machine repaired: it's not like the machine gives fair notice, is it? One day, it's dead. That's the day you *should* take the data off. But you can't.

By Steve_Cassidy on 7 Aug 2010

I was going to say that I quite like looking at ladies WITHOUT bikini's on, but if I did then I'm sure you'd be breaking my door down armed with flaming torches and pitchforks, so I won't :)

By TiredGeek on 7 Aug 2010

Why is it expected?

That that the information on a broken laptop will be read?

I've repaired computers for nearly 3 decades now, as well as administrered networks of private and corporate data.

I've never looked at data I shouldn't. Yes, when a virus check is running, you can see some interesting names listed, but I've never gone and searched out the "interesting" files.

They are private and none of the business of the person repairing the computer.

Even as an admin and support person on a company network, I don't look at data I shouldn't, if I need to look at a certain folder, I always ask for permission first, before giving myself rights to look, and if the owner of the files is not happy with me have access to the folder, I'll do the maintenance work in front of them and remove myself from the rights list again afterwards.

People like this give the industry a bad name. Hones pot? Maybe, but we need to weed out such people.

By big_D on 8 Aug 2010

@Steve_Cassidy

Your esteemed editor just "solicited" (please note Mr. GillsMan7) reader feedback on the style and content of the magazine and web site (editorial issue 192). I think you can take it that there is a significant number of readers who do not appreciate the "tabloid tone" of this headline or instances of tabloid-like journalistic standards in general.

On a different angle, no one is suggesting what this boy did was acceptable or that he is a credit to the IT industry. However nine months in jail and having your picture plastered all over the place labelled "pervert" does seem somewhat out of proportion to the reported facts of the case.

The point about consent is well taken, and I think that would be a very important factor if the stolen picture had been pornographic or genuinely intimate - but given that it was mild enough to be published in PC Pro, the reaction is out of proportion to the crime.

However I would accept that the jail sentence *might* be justified by the shenanigans with the bank account and certainly would have been if any money had actually been stolen, or if the boy had previous convictions for theft.

By JohnAHind on 8 Aug 2010

Laptop repair pervert jailed for nine months

First of all I don't condone any illegal acts.
Many might recall a former glam rock singer in a similair position. Yet it was him who got the stir not the person doing the repair. How times have changed

By invalidscreenname on 8 Aug 2010

@JohnAHind

My comment really bothered you didn't it? My main problem is with people using the comments section to berate the authors. Seems to happen more on PC Pro than any of the other websites I visit. I don't see you writing interesting articles so, frankly, who are you to criticise? Most (but not all) comments left are vacuous and uninteresting anyway (fwiw, I'm not classing my comments in the "interesting" category).

Back on topic, if you don't believe that someone who takes pictures off of customer's computer and stores them in a folder called "mammas jammas" is a little perverted, then we must be living on very different planets. Looking at a women in a bikini and taking private pictures off of some eles's computer isn't nearly the same thing. It's sad that I have to point that out really.

By GillsMan7 on 8 Aug 2010

@GillsMan7

On which planet is calling someone "uneducated" and an "idiot" not supposed to bother them? And I would not have objected to "a little perverted" - that could describe a lapse of judgement. "Pervert" on the other hand is a label intended to de-humanise for ever, and I still think it is excessive in this case.

By JohnAHind on 8 Aug 2010

Laptop repair man who was a little perverted jailed for nine months

A MUCH better headline. On the other hand, it might explain why Mr Collins is a professional journalist and you're not.

By GillsMan7 on 8 Aug 2010

@GillsMan7 - that has to be the most disingenious argument I have seen on the internet for quite a while, and that obviously is saying something.

I doubt any of us know how to run a country - in your weird world that would mean we couldn't criticise the government. What a ridiculous argument.

By Nodule on 8 Aug 2010

Gillsman7 is right

Oh Dear, it wasnt so long ago the comments in PC Pro were not reduced to the level of a kindergarten squabble. The guys a thief,he betrayed a trust. I be annoyed if someone stole my information and photos.most people would Why do you think he was serching the folders, to find a cooking recipe ?Grow up guys and get a life ,stop making this idiot out to be some kind of hero,he's a pervert and nothing less

By NX_74205 on 8 Aug 2010

A poor counter-argument

A poor argument always takes one person's argument and applies it to any other situation to attempt to validate their point. Well done, Nodule, on taking my point and applying it to a completely different situation. The lack of parallels are too numerous to mention. I'm sure you'll work them out given enough time.

Whilst being well aware that in highlighting this fact I'm contributing to the problem, but the comments section at PC Pro seems to be full of people who seem to want to criticise the authors for any little reason when, 99 times out of 100 they have nothing of interest to say themselves. What happened to adding interesting points to articles instead of just whinging that the man was "a little perverted" rather than just "a pervert".

By GillsMan7 on 9 Aug 2010

Meanwhile...

I'm fixing an old XP PC for someone this weekend. I had to backup the data as the file system was corrputed and Windows wouldn't start. I found porn (with obvious names) and illegally downloaded materials. What do I do? I just backup most things I could find easily onto a DVD.

The PC was also full of malware, which I removed. I will tell the guy to remove some of the many peer-to-peer clients on the PC just to improve performance and reduce the risk of future infection.

People who pass their PCs over for repair have to show a great deal of trust, and the repairer has to show a lot of discretion.

By Stiggy on 9 Aug 2010

@GillsMan7

I think you've missed the point completely. It's not about using on word or another, it's about magazine which supposedly aimed at professionals, to start using screaming tabloid headers - obviously it was met with some backlash. I'm not saying that it's on the same level as if Financial Times would start using tabloid headers, however it's perfectly logical to expect the comments to move towards the tabloid level as well, is it not?

By Lomskij on 9 Aug 2010

What was he convicted for?

So what was he actually convicted for? Can't believe that simply copying data would lead to a fraud conviction - there must be more to it than that.

By davidbryant4 on 9 Aug 2010

At least The Register hasn't gone tabloid on this.

The Reg's headline reads;

"Corrupt repair engineer jailed for bank fraud attempt"

Much more balanced in my opinion.

By rjp2000 on 9 Aug 2010

What is wrong with you?

I'm becoming utterly disillusioned and disappointed with the sniping some of the readers are tending towards. It seems that whenever Barry Collins writes an article it's a green light for for a torrent of abuse against his (correct) vocabulary, or such gracious comments like "check your facts first", or "I thought this publication was above tabloid trash".

If you find reading this free publication so repugnant, DON'T READ IT.

By timfrance on 10 Aug 2010