Department of Engineering

Fines for Minor Misuse of Computers

The Department Council, has approved a fixed penalty fine system for minor misuse of the system. The main intention of this is to reduce the amount of staff time spent on these cases.

The types of minor misuse covered by this are those contraventions of the Department's Rules or the Information Strategy and Services Syndicate Rules which are not malicious in intent and cause little if any actual damage.

The fixed penalty fine is currently twenty pounds; a copy of the notice of this will be sent to the Tutor of the student involved to be kept on his or her file. The accused can either choose to pay this fine within two weeks or can ask to have the case heard by the Information Strategy and Services Syndicate's Disciplinary mechanisms. If the Disciplinary Panel finds the accused guilty, it is likely that the total penalty imposed by it will be substantially higher than a twenty pound fine and will take into account the additional waste of staff time.