Great Sting or Waste of Money

beer enigma

TV SHOW STING CRITICISED

Police chiefs have been criticised by human rights campaigners after they used a televised TV game show sting to lure wanted criminals into custody.

Hampshire Police teamed up with Channel 5 to set up a fake game show fronted by Neil and Christine Hamilton. They wrote to 150 wanted criminals who had evaded arrest, inviting them to appear on the Great Big Giveaway Show.

Upon arriving at the fake TV studio in Portsmouth the guests were greeted by the Hamiltons and told they had won a cash prize. They were then led into a room where they had their make-up done and were told to wait until they were wanted for the TV show.

When they were called, applause was played on a tape as they walked through a cloud of dry ice into the arms of waiting police officers who arrested them. The sting was conducted by undercover reporter Donal MacIntyre for a Channel 5 series later this year.

Superintendent Robin Jarman of Hampshire Police said the operation had been a huge success. Seventeen criminals were arrested at the studio and another 100 fine-dodgers are set to appear in court after replying to their letters about the show. However, human rights group Liberty claimed the police tactics were "distasteful", and said crime should not be turned into a TV game show.

A spokesman said: "We don't object to the principle of the police working with the media but it leaves us with a slight sense of unease when such a serious matter is being turned into showbiz."

impr0v

if Neil and Christine Hamilton could find these masters of evasion to invite them on to the show, then surely the coppers could, and in that case, why not just arrest them at their houses?

ixoy

impr0v wrote:

if Neil and Christine Hamilton could find these masters of evasion to invite them on to the show, then surely the coppers could, and in that case, why not just arrest them at their houses?

Precisely. Is there some rule about arresting people only at particular addresses? Or is there an element to the story that's made up? Where was it originally posted. Entrapment is always a dangerous legal mindfield and hardly an ideal way to catch a criminal...

meepmeep

hehehehe

sneaky but i like it

beer enigma

Sorry should've quoted the source....seems legit enough

Sky News

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1154412,00.html

Thought the dry ice was a nice touch by the cops :eek:

meepmeep

I thought entrapment was if they were led into committing the crime?

Not if they were lured somewhere under false pretences so they could be arrested?

I don't really know but I just thought thats what it was......

monkeyfudge

They did this in the Simpsons...

It's just like the motor boat that Homer won in the police raffle...

ixoy

meepmeep wrote:

I thought entrapment was if they were led into committing the crime?

Not if they were lured somewhere under false pretences so they could be arrested?

Actually I think you're right but it still doesn't explain why the TV producers knew where the criminals were but the cops didn't (or at least didn't go to those addresses).

Fysh

ixoy wrote:

Actually I think you're right but it still doesn't explain why the TV producers knew where the criminals were but the cops didn't (or at least didn't go to those addresses).

I presume from the post that there were some sort of invitations sent out to these people to get them to admit to whatever they did and get involved. Might have been just an ad open to everyone (later cross-referenced with police records, perhaps?), or it might have been filtered through police/local govt records.

I'd love to know why they went to the bother of actually filming the fake TV show, but then again this is Donald Macintyre...

fiacha

ixoy wrote:

Actually I think you're right but it still doesn't explain why the TV producers knew where the criminals were but the cops didn't (or at least didn't go to those addresses).

person may not actually live at that address, and friends / family etc pass the post on. apparentlly quite a common setup for scum.
i imagine the letter says they've been picked at random from XX companies records and have a chance to win big shiney tracksuits etc

this trick takes advantage of their greed and is used a lot by police departments in the US.

would love to be involved in setting up something like that. can you imagine the slagging they'll get in jail !

davej

Would like to see the "show" when it comes out alright. I quite like Donal McIntyre, it's a pity his face is so well know now in the uk that he can't be more involved in actually doing the sting himself.

davej

Wertz

fiacha wrote:

person may not actually live at that address, and friends / family etc pass the post on. apparentlly quite a common setup for scum.
i imagine the letter says they've been picked at random from XX companies records and have a chance to win big shiney tracksuits etc

this trick takes advantage of their greed and is used a lot by police departments in the US.

would love to be involved in setting up something like that. can you imagine the slagging they'll get in jail !

Quoted for emphasis.

A lot of you in this thread seem naeive enough to think that it was the TV company that found these criminal's addresses. A lot more likely is that the police provided last known addresses and invitations to the show were sent to those residences.
When hard-to-catch criminals see cop cars even coming into the street they're out the backdoor and away before the doorbell even rings. This way gives them a false sense of security, and corrals them into a controlled area where they can then be arrested.
Not sure if I agree with making a mockery of the criminals on a TV show: catching them in the act is one thing but parading them for all to see on national TV just cos they've eventually been brought to book is a little sensationalist IMO.

RTÉ could do with taking a leaf out of Ch5's book, although when our lot of on-the-run scum get arrested there's no where for them to be f*cking locked up: maybe they could all be forced to have to listen to Derek Mooney record several episodes of Winning Streak as a form of tourture. That'd give Liberty something to whine about...;)

Doper Than U

meh.. I'm not really worried about criminals embarrassment at having to be caught on tv for the world to see. If they weren't embarrassed about committing a crime, surely it won't surprise the poor dears too much when they are actually caught for it. Maybe they never heard the phrase "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time". Their tough luck I say. And look how many people they caught in one go!! All coz those greedy f***ers thought they were gonna get something for free. Lmao.. [bart] The ironing is delicious [/bart]

John R

^^^ What he said.

Criminals should be publicly embarrassed.

Perhaps the human rights campaigners should concern themselves with the rights of non-scum to live their lives without being victims of crime.

FX Meister

They did this in the states a few years ago, very clever idea I think. So what if they got duped, they broke the law.

Doper Than U

^^^ What he said.

What SHE said..

Victor

If I have it right, but there was no cameras, no audience, no set, because it wasn't a TV studio, so it cost very little?

FX Meister

Surely they have to pay Neil and Christine Hamilton?

pickarooney

Don't the have "plain brown wrappers" (unmarked police cars) in the UK?
I take it from the original post these are people who have accumulatd parking/speeding fines or other such trivialites. Hardly death-sentence material in any case.