Reply to post:

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Even if it is illegal to do, do you think someone can be prosecuted for receiving non-encrypted info sent out over the air?"

If you leave your door unlocked and someone enters and removes your property without your permission then they can still be prosecuted for theft. Your failure to secure your property doesn't constitute permission.

Under the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act, unless you are a person with permission from the government, like an Ofcom employee whose job it is to monitor radio compliance or you have permission from the radio transmission license holder you may only receive transmissions intended for general reception (licensed broadcast stations), weather broadcasts, CB or amateur radio. A side effect of this is that it is actually a crime to listen to a pirate radio station because they don't have a license and are therefore not covered by the broadcast exemption.

There is an Ofcom document that sets out what it is legal to use a radio receiver for.

Someone can absolutely be prosecuted under the Wireless Telegraphy Act for receiving something they shouldn't that was unencrypted and it has happened. An offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act has probably also been committed if someone knowingly intercepts private messages intended for someone else without their permission. Add on a Data Protection Act charge too if the signal contained personal information because it was sent by a computer and miscreant in this case used a computer to convert it back into text.

That this person had an Amateur Radio License is an aggravating factor as they have done radio training, should know better and can't claim they bought a scanner off Amazon and nobody told them what they shouldn't do with it. They are in a load of trouble and, if prosecuted under the Wireless Telegraphy Act will be disqualified from holding an Amateur radio license or working for any broadcast station for 5 years.

+10 stupidity points for also putting it unsecured on the Internet so they got caught.