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| Britain | ||
| Disc listing foreign criminals lost for a year | ||
| 2008-02-20 | ||
Serious offenders on the run from the Netherlands have been able to commit further crimes in Britain after the Crown Prosecution Service mislaid a computer disc containing their details.
Initial checks on 2,000 samples carried out by police since the disc was discovered last month have found matches against 15 people, including 11 who have committed further crimes in Britain during the past year. But the figures could be higher, as a team of police officers still have to carry out checks on a further 2,000 samples provided by the Dutch authorities. The latest data controversy occured after the Dutch authorities tried to track down 4,000 Dutch citizens who were on the run after committing serious crimes. They sent a disc containing the DNA samples of the offenders to a number of EU states, including Britain. The disc to the Attorney-General in Britain was sent in January last year with a request that the details be checked against the countryÂ’s national DNA database. It was then sent to the Crown Prosecution Service but disappeared. It was not until last month that it was found and sent to the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which oversees the DNA database. Whitehall sources said yesterday that it was only when the NPIA received the disc and realised what it contained that Home Office ministers were informed of what had happened.
David Ruffley, the Shadow Police Minister, said yesterday: “By losing this DNA disc the Government has allowed people judged serious criminals by the Dutch to stay in the UK and commit offences. Government incompetence has put the safety of our citizens at risk yet again. “The public will want the Home Secretary to tell them what offences these individuals have committed and if they are going to be extradited.” David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “Yet again we see a disastrous loss of data which has an impact for public security and public safety.” A statement from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “We can confirm that DNA profiles of around 2,000 unknown individuals were sent by a foreign jurisdiction to the CPS to facilitate a check against the national DNA database. “These are profiles relating to unsolved crimes in that country. This is not a data security issue as this information was always in the possession of the CPS.” The statement added: “As this information necessarily relates to ongoing police investigations it would be inappropriate to provide any more detail at this stage.” The disc went missing at the Crown Prosecution Service in the same month that it emerged that 27,000 paper records on British citizens who had committed crimes abroad had been left in boxes in the Home Office rather than being entered on the Police National Computer. | ||
| Posted by:lotp |
| #3 Did ya check the Sim Ant jewel case? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-02-20 17:00 |
| #2 Only one copy? Yeah, that sounds like a government program. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-02-20 09:00 |
| #1 The Dutch are fools - they should have turned this over to the student loan collection people. Those ba*tards never lose track of anyone ! |
| Posted by: GORT 2008-02-20 07:38 |