In June 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) disclosed that, since 1st June 2018, 92 cases involving S.170 offences (Data Protection Act 2018) were investigated by its Criminal Investigations Team. Section 170 makes it a criminal offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly:
(a) obtain or disclose personal data without the consent of the controller,
(b) procure the disclosure of personal data to another person without the consent of the controller, or
(c) after obtaining personal data, to retain it without the consent of the person who was the controller in relation to the personal data when it was obtained.
Rogue workers accessing and abusing personal data for their own gain is a real risk for organisations with vast customer databases that have commercial value. There have been a number of S.170 prosecutions by the ICO recently. The latest involves a sales consultant at a car leasing company.
On 17th September 2024, Alexander Doré pleaded guilty to retaining and selling 3,600 pieces of customer records obtained from the car leasing company he worked for.
The information had been taken shortly before Doré resigned . He approached multiple competitor companies with this information, whilst claiming that it belonged to him. Doré was ordered to pay a fine of £1,200 and £300 costs.
The Head of Investigations at the ICO, Andy Curry, said:
“Customers put their trust in any number of organisations on a daily basis to use and store their data in a legal and appropriate way. Mr Doré took advantage of that trust, as well as the trust of his employers, by taking customer information that he then passed on to other companies, purely for his own financial gain.
“It is with great thanks to Leaseline Vehicle Management Ltd that they brought Mr Doré’s wrongdoing to our attention, and we were able to investigate.
“We hope this successful prosecution shows we will work with companies to bring those committing crimes to justice.”
If a disgruntled or rogue employee commits an offence under section 170, might their employer also be liable for the consequences? The answer is in our recent blog which can be read here.
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