CAIRO, EGYPT — A British council has used anti-terror powers to spy on a family of a three-year-old girl to check they lived in the school’s catchment area, the Daily Mail reported on Friday, April 11.

“I’m incensed that legislation designed to combat terrorism can be turned on a three-year-old,” the shocked mother said.

The mother and her partner had applied for their youngest child to go to the Lilliput First School in Poole.

The family had planned to move from their house to another two miles away but were advised by the council of Lilliput First School in Poole to delay the move until after January in order ensure their daughter enrolled.

Several weeks after the deadline, the middle-class family moved from their house to another two miles away.

Then, the council used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on the family after a tip-off that the family were living at the new house but registering themselves for school admission at their previous address.

The council used an undercover official to make a detailed log on the family’s daily activities.

For three weeks, the official tailed the family’s morning and afternoon school runs and returning in the evening to watch their £350,000 house.

“Female and three children enter target vehicle and drive off,” reads one note by the agent.

“Curtains open and all lights on in premises,” states another.

The log also shows daily visits made to the family’s property.

“Female driver with children as passengers”, said one entry, listing ten roads their car drove along.

The council defended “spying” on the family, claiming that lying on a school application amounted to fraud.

It said RIPA had been used on two occasions during the past year and on both had proved that parents had lied about where they lived.

Passed in 2000 by the Labour government, the RIPA allows police and security agencies to carry out surveillance on “terrorists” and organized crime.

Any evidence obtained under the Act may be used in a criminal prosecution.

It has since been taken up by councils to catch those carrying out any “criminal activity”.

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