Snapchat costs job, blue card

Man in court for pranking friend

A CARER who Snapchatted an image of a client’s genital area to a work colleague as a joke has paid a very heavy price.

Andrew John Olm had taken a photograph the genital area of a 39-year-old intellectually impaired client when he was using the toilet on September 7, last year, Toowoomba District Court was told.

He had then Photoshopped a photograph of a work colleague’s head over the particular area and sent it to that work colleague as a joke.

However, the recipient of the Photoshopped picture saved the image which was later found by someone else, Crown prosecutor Paul Bannister told the court.

As a result, Olm was sacked from his job in disability services and had his blue card suspended, the court heard.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of recording in breach of the Privacy Act and two counts of distributing a record- ing without permission.

His barrister David Jones told the court by using Snapchat his client intended the image to disappear within five seconds of reaching its destination and he didn’t know the recipient would save the image.

His client had paid a very heavy price for the joke having lost his job, a job he enjoyed doing and was considered very good at it. He well liked by the 10 or so clients he worked with, he said.

“He is otherwise of good character and this was one lack of judgment,” Mr Jones said.

Judge Dennis Lynch QC accepted this was at “the lower end of the scale” of the offence and that the victim was never identified.

“It was clearly in poor taste and poor judgment by you,” Judge Lynch told the defendant.

Noting his otherwise good character, Judge Lynch ordered no convictions be recorded and ordered Olm do 100 hours unpaid community service.