Hungry For Info: Spencer |
The
boss of a private investigation company, which illegally 'blagged'
sensitive, personal information from GP surgeries, utility companies,
banks and other institutions on 1,900 occasions, was yesterday fined and
ordered to hand over his illicit profits.
While
tracing individuals who owed unpaid bills, community charges and
other debts staff lied and posed as other people during phone calls
to extract information on behalf of ICU Investigations Ltd and their
330 clients.
ICU's
named clients included Leeds Building Society; Allianz Insurance; Dee
Valley Water; Brighton and Hove City Council and Mint Credit.
The
identities of other institutions and companies are shielded behind
the many solicitor's firms who instructed ICU on their behalf.
Yesterday
the company's director and sole shareholder, Barry Spencer, 41, of
Hook Common, Hook, Hampshire was fined £12,000 with £8,000 costs
and must hand over £69,327.32 or go to prison
for twenty months.
He
was also disqualified from being a company director for eight years.
The
firm's former company secretary Adrian Stanton, 40, of Vicarage Road,
Sunbury-on-Thames was previously fined £7,500, with £6,107 costs.
Both
men were found guilty by an Isleworth Crown Court jury of conspiring
to illegally obtain data, without consent, between April 1, 2009 and
May 13, 2010.
They
claim the company profited by no more than £29,000 from making
illegal traces.
Five
ex-employees pleaded guilty to the same charge and were all fined and
ordered to pay costs.
They
are: Robert Sparling, 38, fined £4,000, with £3,000 costs; Joel
Jones, 43, fined £3,000, with £2,500 costs; Michael Sparling, 41,
fined £2,000, with £2,000 costs; Neil Sturton, 43, fined £1,000,
with £1,000 costs and Lee Humphreys, who was fined £1,000, with
£1,000 costs.
The
company, of Legacy Centre, Hanworth Trading Estate, Hampton Road
West, Feltham was also convicted on the same summons brought under
the Data Protection Act and fined a nominal sum of £100.
Even
though MP's have voted for a two-year maximum sentence for the
offence it has not been enacted and the only penalty available to
Judge Phillip Matthews was an unlimited fine.
He
told Stanton and the five employees at a previous hearing: "You
made blagging phone calls to data controllers with the TV licensing
authority, utility companies and health providers, such as doctors
surgeries.
"Blagging
means misrepresenting your identity and the real purpose of your
call, which was to seek confirmation of an address, say with TV
licensing and that person's method of payment, date of last payment,
the expiry date of the licence and sometimes people's telephone
numbers.
"Another
favourite was to call a hospital local to the target, obtain some
information and then call the target's surgery and blah information,
pretending you were from the local hospital.
"Utility
companies were frequently used because they had huge databases.
The
staff were known as "tracers" and the company operated a
highly-incentivised 'no trace, no fee' policy, offering such prizes
as George Foreman grills when targets were met.
Prosecutor
Mr. Ben Summers told the court: "This case is unique in that it
is the first time conspiracy has been charged.
"They
would trick the people they were calling at utility companies and the
television licensing authority etc into disclosing information that
involved personal data.
"That
information would be used to complete reports on people they were
trying to trace and then sent to ICU's clients.
"This
case is about blagging, getting information about people by deceiving
others and both Spencer and Stanton and ICU were involved in this
practise.
"All
three agreed to systematically commit offences under the Data
Protection Act as part of the business they provided as a tracing
agent."
Companies
contacted for information include Vision Express; npower; E.ON;
British Gas as well as GP surgeries.
"During
the period somewhere in the order of nineteen hundred separate
offences were committed with blagging phone calls being made,"
explained Mr. Summer.
"Personal
details were blagged out of the people who were contacted."
A
favourite method employed was to call an organisation, posing as the
person they were trying to trace, and confirm details such as
addresses and contact numbers.
"The
defendants were involved in agreeing these calls should be made and
through them the company is also responsible.
"They
ran and administered the company and its day to day operation.
"Telephone
calls were routinely made that did breach the Data Protection Act
because they were blagging information from people by misrepresenting
who they were and what they were after.
"It
is inconceivable the offences could have been committed without Mr.
Spencer and Mr. Stanton knowing what was going on," added Mr.
Summers.
Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) Head of Enforcement Stephen Eckersley
said after Spencer's sentencing hearing: “This fine and
confiscation order is not only a justified punishment for Mr.
Spencer, but also a powerful deterrent to anyone thinking they can
profit from illegally blagging personal data.
“People
have the right to have their personal data kept securely.
“The
ICO will do everything in its power to bring unscrupulous private
investigators, such as ICU Investigations Ltd, to justice, including
pursuing confiscation where appropriate to remove the benefit made by
offenders from their offending.”
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