Computer notes library ‘crime’

Press, 8 July 1983, Page 3

Computer notes library ‘crime’

PA Wellington Four years ago a Wellington company director, Mr Jock Lee, lost his library book. That “offence” is listed on the Wanganui Police Computer. Mr Lee, the managing director of Link Consultants, Ltd, a Wellington marketing and consultancy group, discovered his “criminal record” when he applied to the Privacy Commissioner, Sir James Wicks, for a printout of his personal record in the computer. “I decided to get a printout for the hell of it, but now I am not so sure I did the right thing,” he said yesterday. “Losing a library book must be pretty serious to get on to the computer,” he said. “My fellow directors have been looking sideways at me and there have been hints of a company putsch.” Mr Lee was vague about the- details of his “crime,” though he did admit to receiving a letter from the Wellington City Council advising that his book was overdue. “I had to go down and admit that I could not find

it,” he said. “I remember paying $l2 for a replacement, and I gave the library a donation so that it could buy some more. “Now it seems I am labelled a criminal on the Wanganui Computer. The whole thing is absurd, of course, but there is a serious side,” Mr Lee said. “They have got me on the computer for failing to return a library book, but important details on such dangerous people as lan Donaldson and that drug runner, Sinclair, don’t seem to be logged, or at least to the extent that they can put a stop to them until it is too late,” he said.

The printout shows that the Wellington City Council, under a by-law, lodged a prosecution with the Justice Department against Mr Lee on June 26, 1979, for failing to return the book.

The printout recorded that a prosecution was pursued, but in fact a summons was never issued to Mr Lee. But, it notes, the file against Mr Lee is still active — the prosecution has never been withdrawn by the City Council. The chairman of the

library committee, Mrs Rosemary Young-Rouse, said she was horrified that such a thing appeared on the computer. Mrs Young-Rouse said she would launch an inquiry today with the Wellington City Council solicitor to find out why the prosecution had not been withdrawn and if it should ever have been lodged. Sir James said that every criminal proceeding begun after February 17, 1977, was lodged in the computer by the Justice Department for “case monitoring.” “You don’t have to commit murder to get on the computer, you know,” he said. Sir James said that Mr Lee probably would not have known that an information had been laid in the Magistrate’s Court in Wellington because a summons had not been issued. “Even so the printout records that the file is still active and someone could at any time decide to serve a summons,” he said. If the summons was withdrawn the “offence” record would be wiped from the computer, Sir James said.