1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. UK.LEGAL.MODERATED

  • Warrantless searches

    From Jethro_uk@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 25 09:52:15 2025
    Presumably any other evidence they happen across is fair game ?



    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5269qn5jvo


    Police will be given new powers targeting anti-social behaviour and be
    allowed to search homes for stolen mobile phones without a warrant under
    major legislation to be unveiled in Parliament.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Owen Rees@21:1/5 to jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com on Tue Feb 25 11:37:00 2025
    Jethro_uk <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com> wrote:
    Presumably any other evidence they happen across is fair game ?



    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5269qn5jvo


    Police will be given new powers targeting anti-social behaviour and be allowed to search homes for stolen mobile phones without a warrant under major legislation to be unveiled in Parliament.

    Moral of this story: if you are running a drug lab or cannabis farm, do not steal a phone and take it back to base.

    I think we need more than the news reports before we can have any sensible discussion of the issues involved.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Roger Hayter@21:1/5 to jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com on Tue Feb 25 12:22:31 2025
    On 25 Feb 2025 at 09:52:15 GMT, "Jethro_uk" <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com> wrote:

    Presumably any other evidence they happen across is fair game ?



    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5269qn5jvo


    Police will be given new powers targeting anti-social behaviour and be allowed to search homes for stolen mobile phones without a warrant under major legislation to be unveiled in Parliament.

    Since our courts will accept evidence from even totally unlawful searches I would think so. But let's wait for the bill and see what it actually says.


    --

    Roger Hayter

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Pancho@21:1/5 to Owen Rees on Tue Feb 25 12:17:52 2025
    On 2/25/25 11:37, Owen Rees wrote:
    Jethro_uk <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com> wrote:
    Presumably any other evidence they happen across is fair game ?



    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5269qn5jvo


    Police will be given new powers targeting anti-social behaviour and be
    allowed to search homes for stolen mobile phones without a warrant under
    major legislation to be unveiled in Parliament.

    Moral of this story: if you are running a drug lab or cannabis farm, do not steal a phone and take it back to base.


    No, you should substitute "possess drugs" for run "a drug lab". The
    problem is that we have laws which are widely broken but rarely
    enforced. It is likely that the average person is guilty of some crime,
    which may be uncovered by a fishing trip search.


    I think we need more than the news reports before we can have any sensible discussion of the issues involved.


    Well yes, but given it is drafted by politicians, we can almost
    guarantee they will get it wrong. Rather than enabling the police to
    retrieve a stolen Bluetooth tracker screaming "I'm inside", we will be
    granting the police carte blanche to enter and search the home of anyone
    they don't like. It will become the equivalent of a car search, prompted
    by the officer detecting "the smell of cannabis"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Goodge@21:1/5 to All on Fri Feb 28 22:56:07 2025
    On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 10:40:37 +0000, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

    On 26/02/2025 10:15, Andy Burns wrote:
    Colin Bignell wrote:

    Jethro_uk wrote:

    Police will be given new powers targeting anti-social behaviour and be >>>> allowed to search homes for stolen mobile phones without a warrant under >>>> major legislation to be unveiled in Parliament.

    From what I read, this will only be where a stolen phone or device has
    a tracker and the tracker shows it to be on the premises to be searched.
    <https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0187/240187.pdf>

    Section 93

    "Electronically tracked stolen goods: search without warrant"

    Seems reasonable to me but they will only catch the people who aren't
    smart enough to put the device inside a biscuit tin or foil pouch.

    That's 95% of criminals, though,

    Mark

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)