Police Face Secret Surveillance Challenge

DEVON and Cornwall police could face court action over its network of secret surveillance cameras which read and store millions of vehicle number plates every year.

The Western Morning News revealed last summer that 63.99 million images were taken in 2008 by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in the region – the equivalent of two every second and almost a 10-fold increase on the 6.7 million records created in 2007.

Records – even for innocent motorists – are kept on a police database for a minimum of two years. Westcountry MPs complained the network had been expanded "by stealth".

Now it has emerged civil rights group Liberty is planning to launch the first legal challenge to forces' uses of the surveillance system.

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This PI Is "Nosey By Nature"

Like all jobs, Timothy Burchell's business as a private investigator has its ups and downs.

Rooting out a wanted murderer from his hideout in the south of France for extradition to the States was "quite scary at times, because I had heard he was a very hard man", admitted Mr Burchell, who runs UK Private Investigators from his home in Culverden Avenue.

"I was holed up in long grass doing surveillance from the bottom of his garden for two weeks. The sound of the lawn mower moving towards me wasn't a good moment, but I was pleased when it all worked out and he was arrested."

On the other hand, "sitting in the back of a van at two in the morning with a camera, munching mini chocolate bars because I've forgotten to bring anything else, waiting for someone to come out, can be dire.

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PIs Bust Drug Dealer

A drug dealer who was brazenly trading from his own front door was jailed for three years seven months today as a result of a secret spy camera being trained on his home by a private detective.

The camera recorded about 20 people a day calling at Francis Nisbet's home to buy heroin.

The surveillance operation had set up by a private investigator working for Nisbet's landlords, the Knightstone Housing Association, after neighbours complained about his drug dealing.

Police were later told of what the hidden CCTV footage was revealing and moved in to arrest Nisbet after 20 further days of observation showed officers that he was indeed selling drugs every day from his home.

At Gloucester crown court Nisbet, 32, of Buddleia court, Wisteria Way, Churchdown, Gloucester, was jailed for three years seven months after he admitted having heroin with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of the drug and possessing cannabis.