Guernsey Press

'You escaped jail by skin of your teeth'

CUSTOMS officer Matthew Walsh was told he had escaped a prison sentence by the 'skin of his teeth'.

Published

Sentencing him to 120 hours community service, concurrent, as a direct alternative to four months in prison on each of the computer misuse charges, and imposing fines of £1,000 on each for the data protection matters, Judge Cherry McMillen said he should have known better.

'You developed an arrogance that you knew better than the rules, which are there for a good reason,' she said.

'The type of work you were doing is much harder in a smaller community, but emphasis must be on integrity and that got lost somewhere along the way, at least on 3 March.'

Judge McMillen said she had to take into account the numerous character references, his previous good character, and the fact that the investigation had not been placed at risk.

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