Backbytes: Fraudster's attempt to use 'right to be forgotten' backfires with £30k legal bill
Jailed in 2007 over a £51m VAT scam, convicted fraudster Malcolm Edwards fails in bid to have news reports of his crimes erased
How long before the so-called "right to be forgotten" is extended to criminal records? Well, they already are, to some extent, with the concept of spent convictions.
Maybe, when a conviction is spent, crooks will start arguing that all contemporary reporting of their crimes should be similarly erased from websites? Certainly, reading between the lines of Google's own reports on the issue, it's largely society's ne'er-do-wells who are availing themselves of the service extended by the European Court of Justice to have all online record of their wrong-doings expunged, effectively, from public record.
However, a legal attempt by convicted VAT fraudster Malcolm Edwards (formerly Malcolm Edwards-Sayer) to force five media organisations, including the BBC, to remove articles about his crimes - before he dropped the action to focus on Google instead - ended in ignominy last week.
Edwards was ordered to pay costs totalling £31,867 to the Nottingham Post, Derby Telegraph, Associated Newspapers, the BBC and The Guardian. He was also ordered to pay £918,789 by the Proceeds of Crime Court, according to the Nottingham Post, a trifling amount considering the amount he is alleged to have defrauded the Exchequer.
Edwards was convicted in November 2007 of the VAT scam, pleading guilty to fraud totalling £51m and stealing from personal injury claimants, according to the BBC. Jailed for 10 years, according to The Guardian, he was barred from running any type of company for 12 years. Judge Jonathan Teare described him as "diligent and dedicated in your dishonesty".
"Edwards-Sayer was originally charged with £51m worth of VAT fraud when his case was in court. However, it has since emerged he was not liable for the full amount and part of the overall bill has now been settled by customers who bought the mobile phones and computer chips from him," according to The Derby Telegraph write-up of Edwards's Proceeds of Crime hearing.
Intriguingly, perhaps, the Daily Mail (owned by Associated Press) claims that he was "a 'facilitator' rather than an organiser of the fraud" and that "comprehensive failures by the prosecution meant eight other defendants accused of taking part in the fraud walked free because they could not receive a fair trial".
All but the Associated Press report are searchable on both Google and DuckDuckGo, at least for now. It's not clear whether company director databases will likewise be required to expunge details of expired bans, on request, in the name of the EU's "right to be forgotten".