Boss Of "Blagging" Private Eye Firm Must Hand Over £69,000 Or Go To Prison

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.

"There was no legitimate reason for you to ring TV licensing, utility companies or doctor's surgeries. You were seeking personal information, which in your guise you were not entitled to, misrepresenting who you were."

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.”