Louise Haigh

[Tryingtokeepgoing]

AIBU to think that if you really didn’t commit the crime, don’t plead guilty even if your solicitor advises you to. I mean, sure, for a traffic or speeding offence maybe that’d be the expedient thing to do. But fraud…?

Louise Haigh resigns over stolen mobile phone fraud conviction

https://www.thetimes.com/article/6772fe81-8e36-4e5d-baa8-4902a6553b4d?shareToken=3fe1e52cb5b31dc1a3e40721c219a69e

I just think though that if the prime minister knew about it, why did she have to go?
The thing is for me, and nobody's answer. In this, we are talking about a spent conviction. All they will talk about is that we need to get people who have committed crime into work. This does not show that is possible when we are sacking. People with a spent that is nothing on your record. Any more you've got it spent. It was 2014 over 10 years ago. So really, it isn't a good example

She should have declared this publicly, or not applied for the job.

Amazing she was so stupid not to know (or care?) that phones can be located when they’re turned on.

But we have had prowlers round our way for three nights now and the police are too busy to come out..

I agree with this. I don’t really rate her- she handled the train drivers’ strike really badly- but it’s pissing me off the way Labour ministers are being hounded for very minor things compared to the shit the Tories got away with for so long.

I think the same. The story doesn't make sense as phones are one of the easiest things to find if you think you've lost them.

I suspect her employer had wider issues to have sacked her plus being found/pleading guilty in the court case against her. Pure speculation but I wonder if she consistently fiddled her expenses.

There is a reason (allegedly) that the media are out to dig the dirt on her - to do with her personal life that people aren’t reporting. All journos and people in Westminster know the (alleged) gossip. I suspect Keir wants rid before that story breaks. After all it is a spent conviction that she already declared.

Im just really sad about this. I thought she was a really excellent minister and was making a real impact. It also seems unfair to have a President elect whoo is a convicted felon, and a female minister with a spent conviction.
But I guess the press had to have their pound of flesh, and she had no choice but to resign

And a point that I keep making that nobody has got back to me.If we are now trying to encourage people that have committed crime back to work, this is a nod to say, if you have a spent conviction, you won't get a job and I think that's ridiculous

Spent conviction which she declared when she joined government. But this story is out the day after she’s published one of the more ambitious travel plan centering people and not vested interests of rail companies and others. I too suspect there’s more to it and that perhaps some interest groups didn’t like where she was going with her integrated plan and call for ideas. People might perhaps complain about rubbish train and bus services and they might actually listen and maybe, just maybe they might hit profits.

The treasury’s wanted her out since she agreed to massive pay raises for train drivers with no conditions attached.

Here’s my guess about what happened:

She had a crummy old phone from work. She got mugged, but her phone wasn’t taken. She lying reported to work and to the police that her phone had in fact been stolen, so she could get a better one.

She then got issued the latest handset - result!!

Then some time later she turned on the old phone, and it was detected reconnecting with the network. Investigation revealed it was still in her possession. Prosecution ensues.

No, they can’t tell them how to plead.

They advise on credit for a guilty plea, but it’s up to the defendant how to plead.

I assume there's more to it than she found the phone after reporting it stolen - you don't get charged with fraud for find a phone you thought had been stolen.

I think there's more to this story and it might give Starmer excuse for reshuffle. Let's hope David Lammy is moved as Foreign Secretary.

Do we have a President elect here?

I agree the story doesn't make sense. I can see that she might have assumed the work phone was in her stolen bag so told the police and her employer this. I can see there might have been a delay in her finding the phone at home. It could have been in another bag/coat pocket/buried under stuff. Or she maybe went to stay with friends after being mugged or was even in hospital so didn't get home for a day or two.
So she finds the phone and turns it on. The police notice (amazing in itself) - surely she just explains to the police and her employer what happened? Unless she kept her new phone and gave her old phone to someone else?

Yes it’s very odd. A similar thing happened to my colleague at a similar organisation. They immediately handed the found device in and they let the police know. End of story.

there is a suggestion she went through a lot of work phones which is unusual. I don’t think it says if she lost her job or not

I think there is more to come out and that’s why Keir has pulled the rug so fast

Looks like more to this story. It is unusual for an employer to investigate this and a prosecution and conviction.

I think the issue is that she was in public office and there is a trust issue with a convicted fraudster being having a say in public funds spending.

Then some time later she turned on the old phone, and it was detected reconnecting with the network. Investigation revealed it was still in her possession. Prosecution ensues.

But then she just claims it was down the side of the sofa all the time and she's just discovered it. I'm not sure in those circumstances I would think of telling the police I'd found it.

There’s something really weird going on, having worked in very similar companies.

You wouldn’t get referred to police for losing a few mobile phones. They don’t care that much. They don’t have the time nor resources to follow that through.

You could however get sacked for gross misconduct if you had effectively stolen them.

I suspect she tried it on with unfair dismissal after being sacked for gross misconduct and Aviva said well, f* around and find out, and took it up with the police.

I don’t understand why she would have switched it on as she had a replacement

astounded that the police discovered it!!

Aviva started the investigation which led to her conviction AFTER multiple occasions of their phones going missing or stolen that had been in her possession which she reported to them. So presumably they’d given her enough chances and had enough.

Obviously way more to this story as it says in the article there were multiple phones being investigated.

I will make my point again as everyone is ignoring this it's a spent conviction. We spend years telling people that when they have committed a crime, they can get a job because we have a lot of unemployed people who have been maybe out of prison or not even that have spent convictions on apparently, that should not stop you from getting a job because they are spent, so this is actually saying to people You cannot get a job because you have a spent conviction

This. It wasn't just one incident. She "lost" several company phones