QUICK thinking pub workers used social networking website Facebook to help catch a criminal.
CCTV cameras outside the Litten Tree in Hereford city centre captured a vandal causing £50 worth of damage to a picture on a wall.
The next day staff uploaded an image of the suspect on Facebook and within 24 hours he had been identified and gave himself up to police.
The offender has been given an £80 fixed penalty fine and offered to pay for the damage.
West Mercia police will now look into using the website, with more than one million users across the world, as a communication tool. Chief Inspector Jim McLaughlin of Hereford police said: “Using Facebook and similar sites in such a way could prove to be a very useful tool in our armoury.
“There is a possible downside in that if a person recognises a suspect and replies on Facebook to the person who posted the picture, the witness’s details are visible to all, with the attendant risk of reprisals.
“We will monitor the development of this new technology with interest.”
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