The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Want to get into 10 Downing Street? Get a Lithuanian ID card

Fortress Britain foiled again

What you need to know about cloud backup

A serial burglar from Stratford, East London used nothing more complicated than his girlfriend's Lithuanian identity card to get into 10 Downing Street.

Obadiah Marius, 44, was freed on a suspended sentence from Southwark Crown Court yesterday, after pleading guilty to burglary over the incident.

In June last year he and his girlfriend found their way into the back offices of 10 Downing Street through an adjoining building on Whitehall. Once there they wandered around for a bit before being arrested outside 9 Downing street.

Marius was charged with burglary but his girlfriend was released without charge. They were originally arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act which restricts political protest within a kilometre of Parliament.

Southwark Crown Court sentenced Marius to a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months while he seeks treatment for his drug problems. The judge described him as a "persistent rogue", but offered him a final chance and a residential drug treatment order.

Marius also pleaded guilty of breaking into Snaresbrook Crown Court and pinching three judge's laptops.

A security guard told the Evening Standard that Marius may have held up something the guard mistook for a building pass.®

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

Latest Comments

I remember my parents taking us to look at number 10

We strolled along , waved to the "coppers" had a look and left.

Last time I walked past downing street it was a massive steel fence looking like an ex-East German Border post relocated. So now English tourists are unable to visit one of the important national sights yet foreigners can just waltz in through the back door. I know Blair and Brown are a bit younger than me and "skooling" was starting to go down hill, but how did they miss the fact that Animal Farm and 1984 are works of fiction, not instruction manuals, unless they got the non-fiction tag confused.

0
0

@Chris

"as much crap gets thrown about the US, at least you can still protest in front of the white house and the congress building."

Pull the other one...or better still ask Cindy Sheehan.

Dead bird for democracy.

0
0

Hooray!

I predict an influx of Lithuanian tourists to UK. Imagine the advertising slogans: Meet PM of UK for free, just do not forget your ID card :) Since I am Lithuanian and I do have my ID card, I am tempted also, maybe it works as a free pass to museums also :)

0
0

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
 breaking news
Number of cops abusing Police National Computer access on the rise
Only a telegram from the Queen can get you off it
 breaking news
NSA whistleblower to tech firms, Obama: 'Grow a pair!'
Ed Snowden: Email tracking grabs 'IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything'
 breaking news
Ecuador: All right, Julian, you CAN stay on our sofa - it's your human right
Minister and Wikileaker share cosy chat in tiny London flat
Google flings another £1m at online child sex abuse vid CRACKDOWN
See, see, we're trying, ad giant tells Daily Mail UK.gov
 breaking news
NSA PRISM-gate: Relax, GCHQ spooks 'keep us safe', says Cameron
Whatever they are up to, it's all above board, we're told
PRISM snitch claims NSA hacked Chinese targets since 2009
Snowden suddenly looks safer in Hong Kong after revelations
 breaking news
US chief spook: Look, we only want to spy on 6.66 BEELLLION of you
Americans assured they are not in the NSA's sights