B P Collins Solicitors: talk to the experts
Gerrards Cross: +44(0) 1753 889995
Beaconsfield: +44(0) 1494 675363
Related stories
New website launched to help inventors
17 November 2008
Lawyers go to the top of the class in directories
13 November 2008
Tribunal payouts 'on the increase'
10 November 2008
Bond movie party is just the ticket
31 October 2008
Terror laws 'used to monitor fishermen'
14 May 2008
Poole borough council has reportedly used surveillance laws to check on a local fisherman gathering shellfish in the harbour.
Council officials admitted using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which allows covert surveillance, to monitor illegal harvesting of clams and cockles.
Fishing in Poole harbour is prohibited by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on grounds of pollution and public health.
Tim Martin from the council said that they had used entirely legal powers to prevent any behaviour that could "damage our local communities or threaten Poole's natural environment".
However, Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, told the Guardian that "you do not use a sledgehammer to crack a nut".
"You can care about serious crime and terrorism without throwing away our personal privacy."
"The law must be reformed to require 'sign-off' by judges, not self-authorisation by over-zealous bureaucrats," she added.
Poole officials admitted using the legislation 17 times since 2005, including checking whether a family was actually living in a particular school catchment area.
