stealing sea water

[blackrat]

Mick, dont let him get at you...He just likes acting the big prick on this post. Like I said earlier, I would make enqs into this, and Ive had no one at Seaham nick come forward to say that this happened. Ive spoke to a few of the Officers there ( not c***s ) Tony. And they are disgusted to think that anyone would think that this incident would take place, in fact they couldnt believe it. They are far to busy, chasing their own backsides rather than get involved in such a time wasting exercise.
I will put this down to another fishermans tall tale( and we have all told them )
So as far as Im concerned, this should be the end of the story with nothing gained from it, apart from identifying those, who wish to abuse a service which is there to help others, and gets nothing but stick when things go wrong, but when we get it right, we get no thanks, just another ' well thats what your paid to do'
22yrs service and Proud.............

[paulthespark]

its as simple as this, without a police force in a civilised society it would be total anarchy on the streets,ok they get it wrong sometimes we all do, and they can at times be overbaring especialy the traffic cops, but think! when you are in deep s//t who do you ring for.

[anndy]

i think we should let this one lie and get on with the fishing
there is enough agro in this world ,without any more on here ...........

[eddie t]

The ghostbusters

It has gone a bit far now like i can'nt see a cop saying that.

[zippie]

it has gone a bit too far now like,there you go eddie t a cop has said it !!!!!
27 years service and very proud

[pottsy]

Thats all folks. I am closing this thread now as it is going nowhere

I have reopened this so we can get an update on the position

[fozally]

Just to set the record straight I have asked for this thread to be opened and shut again after this post.

I am a serving cop and was at court last week when I told one of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) lawyers the story and asked for a definitive answer.

After he stopped laughing and pointing out that he had never heard of a court case anything like it many years he could not see how anyone could commit theft as to commit theft someone has to :-

DISHONESTLY
APPROPRIATE
PROPERTY
BELONGING TO ANOTHER
WITH THE INTENTION OF PERMANENTLY DEPRIVING THE OTHER OF IT

All parts must be committed.

As sea water is not owned by anyone then the offence is not complete. I remember from training school that you can commit theft by taking anything from the shoreline which is above the 'mean low water mark' as it is owned by the Queen and managed mainly by Local Authorities. This for example prevents any builders (only an example I stress) from removing tons of sand.

By the way if I was the Custody Officer and a cop brought someone in for nicking sea water I would tell them in no uncertain terms to get a grip on himself/herself and be tempted to pour the 'evidence' over them or at least insist they returned it to the same place where it came from to maintain the biological equilibrium.....lol

[pottsy]

Glad to hear that Thanks for letting us know