The Licence Plate Lookup

A police sergeant was offered about $5,000 by a man to run a licence plate through the police database. The man was working with federal agents in a sting. The sergeant used his patrol car computer and did the search. He had valid log-in details and was allowed to use that database for his job. Department policy banned using it for anything but police work. He was charged under the federal computer fraud law, which punishes anyone who "exceeds authorised access" to a computer.