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IPad Data Minister scandal

Jesus "Health Secretary Michael Matheson has admitted an £11,000 data roaming charge on his iPad was caused by his sons watching football."

And then claimed for it on expenses :eek:

He's paid it back now though so nothing to see here, just an unfortunate error unlike anyone claiming £20 they're not entitled to off DHSS.
 
As ever, it’s the lies of the cover up, not the initial misdemeanour, which has proved to be the bigger problem for him.

Bit like the recent news story of a banker who had a €100 daily subsistence allowance when he went away on business, anyway his receipts showed him ordering two pasta dishes, two sandwiches and two coffees as he was also buying meals for his wife who was with him. He had multiple chances to admit that was what he had done, including being asked direct questions, but tried to lie his way out instead.
 
Elpenor said:
As ever, it’s the lies of the cover up, not the initial misdemeanour, which has proved to be the bigger problem for him.

Bit like the recent news story of a banker who had a €100 daily subsistence allowance when he went away on business, anyway his receipts showed him ordering two pasta dishes, two sandwiches and two coffees as he was also buying meals for his wife who was with him. He had multiple chances to admit that was what he had done, including being asked direct questions, but tried to lie his way out instead.
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Yes, seems like he went round the houses changing the story, plus tried to claim it on expenses rather than coughing up (understandably but wrong). There's a lesson for us all in here, lovely /Clare Rayner voice
 
As well as having him pay it all back and maybe clearing-up just who is allowed access to an official device, maybe they should be asking questions about just why they are still tied-in to a mobile contract/provider with such high international/roaming charges.

We switched to a much better priced one some time ago - admittedly after one of our senior management did much the same thing and shortly after, one of my colleagues did it too.

At least in his case it attracted only a minor warning at the inevitable disciplinary, largely because they accepted that as a member of senior management had got-off with it previously, they could hardly bring a more serious sanction against him.

As soon as that contract was-up, they renegotiated/changed supplier to one with a much more sensible rate.
 
Yes Scottish Health Minister as I recall.

Someone on Reddit suggested it was for porn but I think they were just trying to start a rumour.
 
geminisnake said:
you and me both :)
Also why is this in the Scotland forum? Is this minister Scottish?
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It’s all in the link.

Yes, he’s the Scottish health minister. He was on holiday in Morocco. His ministerial iPad incurred £11,000 data roaming. It was used to watch an Old Firm match. He’s a Celtic fan. Must be a roaming Catholic. But he says it was his kids what done it.
 
Magnus McGinty said:
Phone companies should warn you or cap it when it goes nuts tbh. £11,000 for a bit of streaming is a complete piss take. And anyone could accidentally fall foul of it if they don’t know what they’re doing when abroad.
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It's not entirely the phone companies - a lot of bigger business/institutional customers handle their accounts (devices and telecom/mobile data) through third-party telecoms management firms/providers, which although often cost-efficient, can, depending on contract, lead to an extra layer of sometimes prohibitive charges like this.

This is why most end-users who keep a sharp eye on their outgoings renegotiate terms regularly or switch providers at the end of each contract period.

Of course overseas roaming charges did fall off the radar slightly for a while when they were made illegal in the EU, although they returned what a year or two after Brexit but Morocco would always have had them.
 
two sheds said:
Jesus "Health Secretary Michael Matheson has admitted an £11,000 data roaming charge on his iPad was caused by his sons watching football."

And then claimed for it on expenses :eek:

He's paid it back now though so nothing to see here, just an unfortunate error unlike anyone claiming £20 they're not entitled to off DHSS.
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I think danny la rouge 'buried the lede' by not mentioning the £11k roaming charges in the OP.
 
19sixtysix said:
He had failed to swap his SIM over as requested by the parliament tech team some time ago. They should have just cut the SIM off. He had been told.
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Ahhh - Fuck him then..!

Leaving SIMs active when a contract expires is something these firms do and yes, they tend to charge full-whack. When we switched from that bunch of piss-takers, it was made very clear that it was our responsibility to get the old SIMs/Devices out of use ASAP. At one point, I had a drawer full of devices I'd taken off people with varying degrees of prejudice.

We also took the opportunity to greatly reduce the number of people who qualified for an official device. A lot of them now manage fine on Teams telephony on their own devices.
 
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