Man probed over electoral fraud exposure (From Southend Standard)
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Police investigating Southend man who registered five fake voters
3:00pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in Echo News By David Trayner
Mr Davis with the polling cards
POLICE are investigating a man who registered five fake voters at his two-bedroom flat to expose the ease of electoral fraud.
Officers launched the probe into whether Terry Davis, 58, committed electoral fraud by applying for polling cards for his Leighton Avenue flat using the names after a request from Southend Council.
Sgt Steve Parry, of Leigh Police Station, said: “It has been fed back to ourselves through the council and the investigation is going to be processed through Leigh Police Station.”
The Crown Prosecution Service will decide whether to take Mr Davis to court based on whether the evidence police gather is likely to secure a conviction and whether a prosecution is in the public interest.
Mr Davis had no intention of using the voting cards to vote illegally and handed them over to the Echo, which ran a story last Thursday.
If convicted he would face a fine of up to £5,000 and up to six months in prison.
A council spokesman said: “We are duty bound to refer any instances of suspected electoral fraud to the police.
“It will be a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether it is in the public interest to bring charges against any individual suspected of committing such an offence.”
Comments(17)
j-w
says...
3:11pm Tue 30 Oct 12
pendulum
says...
3:28pm Tue 30 Oct 12
r6keith
says...
3:57pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Eric Whim
says...
3:58pm Tue 30 Oct 12
firedog
says...
4:52pm Tue 30 Oct 12
at least he wont do it again,and it will send out a warning to people thinking of doing it.
paulatepc
says...
5:04pm Tue 30 Oct 12
firedog wrote:..to commit fraud you have to have the intent and carry out the deception to its conclusion - such as, perish the thought, voting 5 times for the Labour party in Basildon Council; if the cards were not used to vote, but handed over to the Echo, then surely no crime has been committed?
£5000,sounds about right,
at least he wont do it again,and it will send out a warning to people thinking of doing it.
Of course he may be prosecuted for embarrassing the authorities...
... that will probably mean extradition to the USA..
Minceir.
says...
5:06pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Number of offences reported = 1
Number detected = 1
Detection rate = 100%
Cost of investigation = Negligible (he coughed before the offence was even reported!)
What a joke.
Eric Whim
says...
5:11pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Minceir. wrote:will he get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again or will they want to make an example of him and send him down?
Good for the crime figures, eh?
Number of offences reported = 1
Number detected = 1
Detection rate = 100%
Cost of investigation = Negligible (he coughed before the offence was even reported!)
What a joke.
jolllyboy
says...
6:35pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Minceir.
says...
6:48pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Eric Whim wrote:My guess would be that he'll receive a police caution or that no further action will be taken. The latter would make most sense.
Minceir. wrote:will he get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again or will they want to make an example of him and send him down?
Good for the crime figures, eh?
Number of offences reported = 1
Number detected = 1
Detection rate = 100%
Cost of investigation = Negligible (he coughed before the offence was even reported!)
What a joke.
Nebs
says...
7:06pm Tue 30 Oct 12
bumper
says...
11:24pm Tue 30 Oct 12
anything that up sets Cameron and the bankers etc you got jump right in and stop joe public showing they are bent
i just cannot get my head round how meany people died for this country to be free ? there was a lot of dead people for nothing .
hope and glory what f@ckin@ hope
Major Incident
says...
1:47pm Wed 31 Oct 12
paulatepc wrote:It's not "electoral fraud". There's a specific offence which covers Mr Davis's misguided protest:
firedog wrote: £5000,sounds about right, at least he wont do it again,and it will send out a warning to people thinking of doing it...to commit fraud you have to have the intent and carry out the deception to its conclusion - such as, perish the thought, voting 5 times for the Labour party in Basildon Council; if the cards were not used to vote, but handed over to the Echo, then surely no crime has been committed? Of course he may be prosecuted for embarrassing the authorities... ... that will probably mean extradition to the USA..
Section 15 Electoral Administration Act 2006 inserts section 13D to the Representation of the People Act 1983 ("RPA") and creates an offence of supplying false information to the Electoral Registration Officer, in connection with the registration of electors. The elements of the offence are: the provision of any false information to an Electoral Registration Officer for any purpose in connection with the registration of electors. It's up to the CPS to decide if prosecution is in the public interest now.
nicknows
says...
3:05pm Wed 31 Oct 12
Mr Davis did this to show how easy it is to get the right to vote in an election.
No checks are made and I suppose that if someone wanted to they would be able to use the polling card for other purposes as well.
Bester
says...
11:14am Thu 1 Nov 12
Eric Whim
says...
11:52am Thu 1 Nov 12
nicknows wrote:like a bit of roachend for a big fat spliff
More public money wasted!
Mr Davis did this to show how easy it is to get the right to vote in an election.
No checks are made and I suppose that if someone wanted to they would be able to use the polling card for other purposes as well.
andy:) says...
3:06pm Tue 30 Oct 12
Surely this guy has a valid defence in that he was exposing flaws.