MoD Spies On Wounded Soldiers

MoD spends £426,000 spying on injured soldiers - Telegraph

The Ministry of Defence has spent £426,000 of taxpayers' money conducting surveillance on injured servicemen.

Officials used counter-terrorism powers to carry out secret filming on hundreds of wounded personnel to check whether they are exaggerating or lying in their compensation claims.

The tactics used are similar to those employed in investigations into suspected benefit cheats.

It is being carried out under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), originally intended to help the police and MI5 monitor terrorists in the UK.

Injured servicemen and women are warned that they could be filmed in letters to their solicitors.

It emerged in July that the MoD had carried out covert filming on 284 people who claimed for compensation since 2000, about one per cent of all injury compensation claims.

Papers released to the Daily Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act show that the exercise has cost £426,000, about £1,500 for each serviceman subject to surveillance.

Although the MoD said that the tactic had saved "millions" of pounds, the newspaper said that only three claims had been rejected outright as a result of the surveillance.

A spokesman said: "Surveillance is used only where there is a suspicion a claim has been exaggerated.

"It is used in just one per cent of civil damages injury cases and ensures that taxpayers' money is not being claimed illegitimately."

At this rate there won't be anyone they're not spying on - except themselves, of course.