On 8 January 2021, the UK’s DPA (“ICO UK”) announced a motor industry employee has been sentenced by the Manchester Crown Court to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, for transferring personal data to an accident claims management firm without authorization.
The said employee pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to secure unauthorized access to computer data and to selling unlawfully obtained personal data while admitting to compiling lists of road traffic accident data including partial names, mobile phone numbers, and registration numbers, despite having no permission from the employers.
An ICO UK investigation found that the data thus obtained was transferred to the director of an accident claims management firm, also sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years. In addition, the ICO UK noted that there had been evidence that the data transferred to the claims management firm was used to make nuisance calls.
Both were also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and contribute GBP 1,000 costs.
The full press release is available here.
