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Spelling errors can get you a jail term
by loiswakeman @ 19 Nov. 2007 - 10:25:18

Shaun Greenhalgh was recently jailed for more than four years for passing off various art forgeries, mostly antiquities.

He was caught because his father took three allegedly Assyrian bas-reliefs to the British Museum for examination in 2005. Unfortunately, the experts spotted several 'spelling mistakes' in the cuneiform script, and the game was up.

So, you have been warned: be sure to use the Word spellchecker with the cuneiform dictionary if you intend to defraud a major museum.

Read more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7090795.stm

8 comments | Permalink | Recommend this post
Tags: art forgery, cuneiform script, spellchecker,

Comments: Hide subcomments

kevinwilsonkevinwilson pro
19/11/07 @ 11:23

life really is stranger than fiction!

LissaTLissaT pro
19/11/07 @ 12:52

Even in crime you should never over-reach yourself but go for low risk and modest returns.

If I were trying to pass off art forgeries I would go for recently dead artists known for the roughness of their rough sketches and pass them off as 'attributed to' from a house clearance of a friend of the artist. A nice provenence but with that tiny element of doubt to keep you close to the right side of the law. Could be quite fun: shame I'm not criminally inclined.

thehomelyyearthehomelyyear pro
19/11/07 @ 18:06

I used to teach. Many young students seem to completely rely on spellcheck

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
19/11/07 @ 18:14

Not a wise strategy, since it is very easy to use the wrong (but correctly spelt) word in the right place! That's why I am always banging on about proof-reading.

(As it's unwise using a calculator without having a rough idea of what the answer should be, so you can see if you made an input error.)

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LissaTLissaT pro
19/11/07 @ 19:52

I may have posted these before, but I like them

Owed to the Spell Checker!
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

"Aoccdrnig to rsceearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe."

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
20/11/07 @ 10:32

I haven't seen that one before - very clever! Not so sure about the legibility of the para underneath though!

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EllieGantEllieGant pro
23/11/07 @ 17:42

I love this story. Was his father in on the attempted fraud or did he just find the bas-reliefs in his house one day and think 'Wow, how did they get there!'

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
23/11/07 @ 18:22

Great, isn't it? His Pa is awaiting sentence as an accomplice, but I think his Mum got off.

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