Two private investigators in June pleaded guilty to obtaining and selling personal information after illegally ‘blagging’ the personal details of a customer from BT. It’s following a prosecution by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Christopher Hackett, trading as Swift Investigations, and Darren Whalley of Managed Credit Services Ltd (MCS Ltd) were convicted of unlawfully obtaining and selling personal information at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court and fined £400 and £500 respectively. Both were also ordered to pay £400 towards prosecution costs.
Hackett contacted BT to ‘blag’ the personal information of a woman in an attempt to trace her partner, who owed money to Blackhorse Finance Ltd. Blackhorse had instructed a private investigator to track the man, believing that any information would be gathered legally. However, the private investigator contracted Darren Whalley to carry out the work and he passed the job on to Christopher Hackett.
The ICO was contacted by BT folllowing a suspicious telephone call to their call centre made by a man claiming to be a BT employee. The caller deceived the true member of staff into disclosing personal information about the debtor’s partner. By illegally ‘blagging’ information from BT, Hackett was able to obtain her address, which led to Blackhorse Finance Ltd visiting her home. It is an offence under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act to unlawfully obtain, disclose or sell personal information without the consent of the data controller.
Mick Gorrill, Assistant Commissioner at the ICO, said afterwards: “Illegally obtaining and selling personal information is a serious offence which can be highly damaging to the individuals concerned. This prosecution is the result of a thorough investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office and is part of our ongoing work to stop the illegal trade in personal information. Individuals must be confident that their personal information is stored securely by those organisations which hold and process it.”
