We often post stupid criminal stories here at Neatorama. This isn't one of them. No, this fellow was most cunning. Christopher Lowcock wrapped up his prosthetic leg in bandages. When private contractors hired by the police attached an electronic monitoring device to him, they wrapped it around the false leg. Then Lowcock took it off whenever he needed to move about town without being traced:
Link -via Gizmodo | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user 85mm.ch used under Creative Commons license
Lowcock could then simply remove his leg - and the tag - whenever he wanted to breach his court-imposed curfew for driving and drug offences, as well as possession of an offensive weapon.
A second G4S officer who went to check the monitoring equipment also failed to carry out the proper test.
Managers became suspicious last month, but when they returned to the address a third time Lowcock had already been arrested and was back in custody accused of driving while banned and without insurance.
Link -via Gizmodo | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user 85mm.ch used under Creative Commons license
this monitoring company failed pretty miserably. it's one thing for one employee to make a mistake and miss something, but for all of that stuff to go unnoticed is pretty remarkable.
But just to correct the story - G4S are not private contractors hired by the police. They are private contractors employed by the home office.