A bankrupt Hell Pizza franchisee has gone to police after a mass of emails he had sent and received were posted online.
Matt Blomfield says the information posted online by blogger Cameron Slater was taken from his office during a burglary in 2010.
Sergeant Grant Hand, of the North Shore police, confirmed a complaint had been received and was under investigation.
The security breach comes a year after Mr Blomfield's computers were seized by the Serious Fraud Office.
At the time, he said he was "squeaky clean".
Mr Slater started publishing the emails on his Whaleoil blog about 10 days ago. They were posted as attached files with a commentary by Mr Slater on what he believed they meant.
This is pretty serious. Slater is of course not divulging where he acquired the data from, but its likely to have come from Blomfield's stolen computer and therefore Slater could be looking at a bit of jail time.
The Crimes Act (PDF) is very specific:
Receiving
(1)Every one is guilty of receiving who receives any property stolen or obtained by any other crime, knowing that property to have been stolen or so obtained, or being reckless as to whether or not the property had been stolen or so obtained.
Slater can't really argue that he wasn't aware the property wasn't stolen... It's got Blomfield's name all over it after all.
Punishment of receiving
Every person who is guilty of receiving is liable as follows:
(a)if the value of the property received exceeds $1,000, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years.
Amongst a plethora of tough on crime hypocrisy, Slater thinks it's a good thing that prison food is unhealthy and flogging is an optional deterrent. Perhaps he will change his tune after a few years inside.
