Police Protecting Convicted Criminals From Being Questioned By Journalists

3rd April 2014

Jesus, what do we have police for? Not this, surely?

She is a convicted fraudster suspected of fleecing hundreds out of their life savings in an elaborate series of holiday and dating scams.

So when victims of Neelam Desai contacted journalist Gareth Davies to say she was at it again, he started his own investigation – in the hope that police would follow suit.

Instead, it was he who got a visit from three uniformed officers – who then served him with a harassment notice for the apparent crime of approaching the swindler for a comment.


Yesterday Scotland Yard was accused of trampling on press freedom after local newspaper chief reporter Mr Davies was warned he faced arrest even for writing stories about Desai.

In an unprecedented step, the chilling ‘prevention of harassment’ notice warns that any attempt to talk to, or approach the conwoman could constitute harassment.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595642/Police-accuse-reporter-harassment-trying-quiz-convicted-conwoman-Three-officers-swoop-journalist-persecution-fraudster.html#ixzz2xpeqZVLn

this world has been turned upside down, the police now protect the criminals...

Some of her crimes:

Desai allegedly set up a fake profile on an Asian marriage website using the photograph of an attractive marketing manager she stole from Facebook to lure men.

One 35-year-old from Leicester claims he lost his business and turned suicidal after being conned out of £35,500 after Desai demanded he pay for them to go on lavish holidays through her travel agency.


Another victim contacted the newspaper saying he too had been scammed by a woman into paying £4,000 for bogus iPhones and iPads to raise money for homeless children.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595642/Police-accuse-reporter-harassment-trying-quiz-convicted-conwoman-Three-officers-swoop-journalist-persecution-fraudster.html#ixzz2xphMkb19

absolute madness..

Nice to see his paper has his corner, though:

The Advertiser does not believe reporters should get special treatment nor that allegations of harassment should be treated anything but seriously.

But does it require three police officers to travel around 20 miles to serve what is, itself, an intimidating warning letter which states a reporter could be arrested for doing his job?

The threat was picked up by the Press Gazette, a media industry publication, and the Daily Mail. It met with widespread condemnation from journalists across the country.

The harassment warning remains in place. Despite this, we will not stop investigating and reporting on Desai – who has, at no point, directly contacted the Advertiser and denied the allegations – where we feel it is fair and appropriate to do so.

Our reports have prompted two police investigations into her actions which, for one alleged victim, follows months of fighting for his accusations to be taken seriously.

That progress has come from good old fashioned journalism – not ‘harassment’.

http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Advertiser-responds-police-threaten-journalist/story-20904983-detail/story.html