Stefan Mileschin

Google may be in a privacy row over its Street View services, but it seems in some corners it has proved very useful for the law.

Over in Taiwan, the map service was used to prove a crime was committed - leading to the successful conviction a man.

The map service was used after defendant Mr Lee was accused of allowing his dog to run riot, causing his neighbour to have a bike accident.

The victim, Mr Peng, blamed the unleashed dog. He told the courts that it had hounded him while he was riding his bike. He told the judge he became scared of the canine and as a result fell off his bike and hurt his forehead.

Mr Lee, however, said the courts were barking up the wrong tree and said that the dog was not his.

He was quickly collared by Judge Song Kuo-chen, who presented a two-year-old Google Street View picture which showed the dog standing in Lee's yard. He said this showed that Lee was its owner.

Police had earlier said there were no other dogs in the rural neighbourhood in Miaoli County, south of Taipei, where Lee and the victim live.

As a result Mr Lee was ordered to cough up $2,000 (59,000 NTD).

http://news.techeye.net/internet/goo...pei-bike-trial