Common informer

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(Law)

one who habitually gives information of the violation of penal statutes, with a view to a prosecution therefor.

- Bouvier.

See also: Informer

References in periodicals archive ?

Beresford, "The Common Informer, the Penal Statutes and Economic Regulation," Economic History Review 10, no.

"DAMN YOU, YOU INFORMING BITCH." VOX POPULI AND THE UNMAKING OF THE GIN ACT OF 1736

The practice of the common informer, reports the Britannica, was "not without its dangers.

Tripp wire: how informers ended up behind every office potted plant

Our High Court emphasised the needs to ensure the purity of the register may be paramount, and the person aggrieved should be interpreted liberally rather than restrictively, with some limits so as to discourage "applications for rectification or removal by busybodies or common informers or strangers proceeding wantonly or persons without any interest in the Register or the functions it serves beyond gratifying an intellectual concern or reflecting merely sentimental motives.