First Clarkson:
Now the dumb kid:Clarkson stung by fraud stunt
Guardian
Unlimited,
Monday January 7 2008
Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has admitted he was wrong to brand the scandal of lost CDs containing the personal data of millions of Britons a "storm in a teacup" after falling victim to an internet scam.
The outspoken star printed his bank details in a newspaper to try and make the point that his money would be safe and that the spectre of identity theft was a sham.
He also gave instructions on how to find his address on the electoral roll and details about the car he drives.
However, in a rare moment of humility Clarkson has now revealed the stunt backfired and his details were used to set up a £500 direct debit payable from his account to the British Diabetic Association.
The charity is one of many organisations that do not need a signature to set up a direct debit.
Clarkson, 47, writing in his column in the Sunday Times, decried the furore last year after CDs disappeared containing the banking details of 7 million families.
The loss led to fears of mass identity theft with people's bank accounts open to internet scams. At the time he wrote: "I have never known such a palaver about nothing. The fact is we happily hand over cheques to all sorts of unsavoury people all day long without a moment's thought. We have nothing to fear."
However, yesterday he told readers he had opened his bank statement to find a direct debit had been set up in his name and £500 taken out of his account.
"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again," he said. "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."
He added: "Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy."
Teen faces racing charge
Challenged OPP driver, cops say
Sonja Puzic,
Windsor StarPublished: Monday, January 07, 2008
An 18-year-old Leamington man has been charged under Ontario's tough new street racing legislation after he tried to race an unmarked police car on Highway 401.
Sgt. Cam Woolley of the OPP highway safety division said the teen was driving his parents' new 2008 Chrysler 300 on the highway toward Windsor Friday morning and pulled up alongside the unmarked OPP vehicle, a Chevrolet Impala with tinted windows.
He repeatedly tried to get the Impala, driven by the Chatham-Kent OPP detachment commander, to race. The Chrysler's speed reached over 160 km/h.
The teen was pulled over and arrested. His G2 class licence (the graduated licence between a learner's G1 and a standard G) was suspended and the car was impounded for a week. He also faces a minimum $2,000 fine if convicted.
"He was crying," Woolley said. "There are a couple of good morals to this story." Woolley said OPP officers use unmarked cars that don't look like police vehicles to target aggressive drivers.
"Every detachment has one," he said. "And there are more of them coming. They won't necessarily be a car, so it could be an SUV or another type of vehicle."
Woolley said the teen's parents had to pick him up after the car was taken away.
According to an Essex OPP news release, a 17-year-old Kingsville resident was also charged with racing Friday after he was clocked travelling 131 km/h on Highway 3 near Marsh Road, where the limit is 80 km/h.
Anyone caught driving 50 km/h over the limit can be charged with street racing. An 85-year-old Thornhill man recently became the oldest person charged under new legislation, which came into effect Sept. 30.
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