Question for legal experts

marybelle01

I can't see why the police would want to get involved. Defamation isn't a criminal thing and identity theft / impersonation apparantly isn't either, or at least that is what the police told me a few years ago when I was a victim. They weren't even slightly interested.

Surely if whatever is being said to potential employers isn't true then it is fairly easy to prove this? Your last employer can surely confirm it isn't true.

Andrew1975

marybelle01 wrote: »

I can't see why the police would want to get involved. Defamation isn't a criminal thing and identity theft / impersonation apparantly isn't either, or at least that is what the police told me a few years ago when I was a victim. They weren't even slightly interested.

Surely if whatever is being said to potential employers isn't true then it is fairly easy to prove this? Your last employer can surely confirm it isn't true.

And therein lies the problem - it appears that the former employer is corroborating these false statements, although as yet I have no written evidence of what they actually said when approached.

Therefore I assume the ex-employer is, in essence, corroborating its own false allegations.

My hope is that the e-mail can be traced back to its origin - the former employer themselves - at which point it 'may' become criminal.

paddyrg

Andrew1975 wrote: »

My hope is that the e-mail can be traced back to its origin - the former employer themselves - at which point it 'may' become criminal.

Without the headers, you've nothing. It is a trivial job to fake a 'from' address, it used to be a game back in the day to send friends emails from ronald@whitehouse.gov - but with only a printout, you've even less, it could easily be typed in Word as I say.

marybelle01

Andrew1975 wrote: »

[/B]

And therein lies the problem - it appears that the former employer is corroborating these false statements, although as yet I have no written evidence of what they actually said when approached.

Therefore I assume the ex-employer is, in essence, corroborating its own false allegations.

My hope is that the e-mail can be traced back to its origin - the former employer themselves - at which point it 'may' become criminal.

No it won't become criminal. It would still be civil. But I think you are probably asking the wrong question and chasing the wrong "rabbit". Clearly there is more to this story than you have told here and people might give you better advice, or point you in the direction of better advice, if they knew what the story was.

Andrew1975

marybelle01 wrote: »

No it won't become criminal. It would still be civil. But I think you are probably asking the wrong question and chasing the wrong "rabbit". Clearly there is more to this story than you have told here and people might give you better advice, or point you in the direction of better advice, if they knew what the story was.

Why do you think I'm chasing the wrong rabbit?

Notmyrealname

Andrew1975 wrote: »

I only have the email in paper form without the headers, although it does have the senders email address on it, and 'their' name.

Meaningless. I can do that in any email program in all of 20 seconds.

Andrew1975

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Meaningless. I can do that in any email program in all of 20 seconds.

The email provider has confirmed that the email address is exists and that the email was sent from it, however they will not provide any further information without verification that I am the account holder.

So the 'meaningless' angle of which you speak has been made redundant already.

The question is whether or not disclosure can be enforced.

agrinnall

Potentially you could ask the Information Commisioner's Office if they can either take action or suggest action that could be take by others - but I haven't looked through the pages detailing what they cover so it may be outside their remit.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover.aspx

Andrew1975

marybelle01 wrote: »

No it won't become criminal. It would still be civil. But I think you are probably asking the wrong question and chasing the wrong "rabbit". Clearly there is more to this story than you have told here and people might give you better advice, or point you in the direction of better advice, if they knew what the story was.

The Malicious Communications Act 1988 is a British Act of Parliament that makes it illegal in England and Wales to "send or deliver letters or other articles for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety".

Andrew1975

agrinnall wrote: »

Potentially you could ask the Information Commisioner's Office if they can either take action or suggest action that could be take by others - but I haven't looked through the pages detailing what they cover so it may be outside their remit.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover.aspx

The Malicious Communications Act 1988 is a British Act of Parliament that makes it illegal in England and Wales to "send or deliver letters or other articles for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety".