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Can stolen email be classed as evidence in court??
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I gave a good friend my Paypal password 2 years ago as we were both selling on ebay together.
However we since fallen out good style and we are now going through a court hearing,Im representing myself due to being over the limit for Legal Aid.
I have found out that she has been into my HOTMAIL account and deleted most of my evidence that I had for the court hearing,I never ever gave her permission to go into my hotmail account.(my hotmail account has the same password)
She has also been into another forum board and looked at my "private messages"where you can send messages on a "one to one" to another person on the forum board,again it was the same password as my paypal and hotmail account.
Now I know you will say I was ridiculous for having the same password to all three(and I now agree) and I have definatly changed my passwords now.
But on the forum board, she printed off the "private messages"I have sent to other people and she is using these in court next month as evidence.
Was she entiltled to do this just because she had my password for paypal only,was she entiltled to try the password and get into my hotmail and forum board and can she use these in court as evidence??
I never gave her permission to go into my email addresses but she thinks she can go into these and delete and print off my private messages.
I hope somebody may help me with this if possible,thank you.
However we since fallen out good style and we are now going through a court hearing,Im representing myself due to being over the limit for Legal Aid.
I have found out that she has been into my HOTMAIL account and deleted most of my evidence that I had for the court hearing,I never ever gave her permission to go into my hotmail account.(my hotmail account has the same password)
She has also been into another forum board and looked at my "private messages"where you can send messages on a "one to one" to another person on the forum board,again it was the same password as my paypal and hotmail account.
Now I know you will say I was ridiculous for having the same password to all three(and I now agree) and I have definatly changed my passwords now.
But on the forum board, she printed off the "private messages"I have sent to other people and she is using these in court next month as evidence.
Was she entiltled to do this just because she had my password for paypal only,was she entiltled to try the password and get into my hotmail and forum board and can she use these in court as evidence??
I never gave her permission to go into my email addresses but she thinks she can go into these and delete and print off my private messages.
I hope somebody may help me with this if possible,thank you.
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Comments
As MrG said I would seek legal advice. And besides, if she's printed those PMs off the internet, whats to say she didn't cook them up in word?
Hi MrG,
Many thanks indeed for your quick response.
I guess you are right about them saying I could of given her my password to hotmail and the forum board as well but I havent spoken to her for 18 months yet I only joined the forum board last November so I couldnt have given her the password to that.
I can prove I have not spoken to her for the past 16 months at least and I can prove I joined the forum board only last November so I couldnt of given her my permission to log in as me and print my private messages to other people.
I may have to see a solicitor,thank you for your help MrG
Could she actually alter the wording in these private messages that she printed off shyboy?,is it possible to do that??
If thats the case then they couldnt be used as evidence in court if there was a chance of them being altered.
As you can tell,Im not very good on computers!!
I will need to find out if it is illegal what she has done,by that I mean going into my accounts(apart from paypal)without my permission and retrieving my emails,she also must of looked at all my other information on my hotmail and forum board as well in order for her to delete my evidence for the court.
Thank you everyone for your replies,so very much appreciated.
Whilst it may be illegal, it's your fault for having the same password for Hotmail.
Its very difficult to be honest!
And as for having the same password for multiple accounts, i will again say, whats to stop her saying you gave her the passwords for all of them, at different times.
As for using the PM's and emails they can easily be altered etc, whilst it may be dubious how she has got ahold of them, im not sure you could complain too much, because of what is (i know you were not aware) lax security on your behalf.
Its a very hard lesson to learn because of my own stupidity.
The other person has added in her statement that she has had no contact whatsoever with me in the past 16 months and I also added that in my statement to court so this will prove that I was not in contact with her in November last year when I first joined the forum board.
Its such a mess.
Its a family law case not a civil case,does that make alot of difference??
Thats true,I never thought of that.
http://www.thesite.org/community/askthesite
You may also want to contact hotmail if you haven't already about the deleted emails - sometimes things can be found even if they've been deleted.
Good luck, sorry I haven't much more to add but it does seem a pretty complicated legal issue.
If you don't mind me asking (if you're allowed to), can you elaborate on any of the details a bit more? All I can tell you is that her accessing any of your private information / correspondence is against the law and unless you get a dodgy judge (possible - there was a judge recently that gave a judgement against some guys because they had 'deleted records' but this information was only ever stored in volatile RAM that gets wiped when you close down the computer / shut down applications) the evidence should as far as I know be inadmissable. It's the same as her going through your mail because you gave her a key to your mailbox and never changed it / asked for it back. She has no right whatsoever and to try and use something she took against you is ridiculous.
But I'm not a legal person, I just try and follow what I see as common sense as normally the law does follow whats fair and/or common sense.
Thank you very much for the link Jim V,I shall take a look at it.
Yes I contacted Hotmail and sadly they couldnt retrieve the emails that she deleted.
I really appreciate all of your replies.Thank you.
The fact she had the password to the paypal account may mean, as others have mentioned, that she'd claim that you also gave her access to your hotmail account and allowed her to read your emails and access the forum account.
If that's she claimed that and was believed then I'm afraid I don't see how the DPA would possibly apply.
The fact you didn't change the password when things went wrong might also seem a little questionable, though an understandable oversight.
Shyboy,I will private message to if that is ok,she may be reading this right now,nothing would surprise me anymore.
In general I believe that the evidence should be inadmissible, but it can be admitted in certain circumstances. She is likely to state that you gave her permission to access the emails and you will need to ask the court to rule the evidence as inadmissible. You will very probably need legal representation because the procedure rules are a minefield.
Are you definitely over the legal aid limit? If you are, you must be earning a fairly decent wage, in which case you can afford to pay for a solicitor, at least at first. You can have nearly £700 a month spare cash before the legal aid limit is reached.
Put it this way, I work as a professional legal adviser in another field (community care and benefits for those who care) and I'm advising you that relying on message boards is as misguided as not changing your password when the relationship failed.
What I think is a better point is how do you prove it's legitimate / not doctored? I'm not in the legal profession but I can see how easily it would be to make fraudulent evidence if print offs of emails were ok to use.
If that were the case, I may start several proceedings right now sueing lots of people for money which they 'promised' to give me in various emails.