Fancy dress is one of those things that can so easily go wrong. Take the example of Colin Terry whose unfortunate fancy dress costume choice may cost him his reputation. Mr Terry is a Chief Superintendent with Devon and Cornwall police who has been serving in Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan Government, on policing and counter terrorism. His fancy dress choice of wearing an Osama Bin Laden outfit and mask to a summer carnival parade in his home village in Cornwall was meant as an in-joke for his friends to guess who he was, as he walked past on the parade. Unfortunately for Mr Terry the joke backfired when a local journalist photographed his fancy dress choice. Mr Terry has had a complaint about him made to Police Complaints Commission, and Devon and Cornwall police have shown disapproval of his poor costume choice.

This is not a one-off example of poor judgement, cast your mind back to 2005 when Prince Harry made the choice to attend a ?colonials and natives? fancy dress party as a desert equipped Nazi soldier. This poor choice landed him in hot water with the public and press, and lead a former armed forces minister Doug Henderson to claim that the prince was clearly unsuitable to take up a place at the Sandhurst Military Academy. If only he had followed his brothers fancy dress choice, and gone as a lion.

Party organisers can also get things very wrong. Take the Converso Call Centre in Southend that regularly organises staff events including fancy dress parties. One of their events had a cops and robbers themed event. Unfortunately a member of the public saw two of the fancy dress wearing revellers arriving. Normally this would not be a issue, but this particular member of the public described the two armed men dressed in dark clothing entering an office building after hours, to the local police. Having a police armed response unit raid your office fancy dress party certainly makes it a night to remember, but for all the wrong reasons.

Southend has had problems like this before when local man Lawrence Corcoran attended a fancy dress party dressed as Rambo. At the end of the party Mr Corcoran invited some friends back to his house to continue the revelry. Unfortunately walking down the street on the way back to his house Mr Corcoran was seen waving his toy gun at friends and also aimed it at passing vehicles, some of which swerved out of the line of fire. The party ended abruptly when two armed response teams and police dog handlers arrived, closing the road and ordering everyone out of the house. Mr Corcoran was ordered by magistrates to do eighty hours of community service and pay a sixty pound fine.

Few people could ever get it as mixed a response to their fancy dress costume as a tory party councilor for Barnet, Brian Gordon. Mr Gordon is a big fan of Fancy Dress, having dressed up as a number of famous political leaders including Ronald Regan, Boris Yeltsin and Ariel Sharon. Unusual fancy dress choices, but nothing offensive about them. The problem occurs when you add Nelson Mandela to the list, and black up in the process. Mr Gordon thought little of it and even had a photograph taken and sent it to the local press himself. When questions were raised about whether it was right for a local councilor to black up, Mr Gordon confronted his critics saying he always dresses as major political figures at fancy dress parties and surely it would be racially prejudiced to exclude Nelson Mandela from his options just because he is black.

The mistakes are obvious, but not to the fancy dress wearers at the time. It's ok to dress up and make a fool of yourself but don't go into controversial subjects. If you must go as a soldier choose an allied soldier not Nazi, if you must go as a terrorist try Guy Fawkes not Osama, and most of all leave the guns behind.