David Turley and Darren Hames pleaded guilty to offences under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act (DPA) last year.
The pair’s offences were uncovered after T-Mobile identified an issue and turned the matter over to the ICO to help investigate how names, addresses, telephone numbers and customer contract end dates were being unlawfully passed on to third parties.
David Turley, who pleaded guilty to 18 offences under Section 55 of the DPA in July 2010, has today been ordered to pay £45,000 confiscation costs and been given a three year conditional discharge as part of a hearing at Chester Crown Court. If he does not pay the confiscation costs within six months he will serve an 18 month prison sentence by default.
Darren Hames, who pleaded guilty to two offences under section 55 of the DPA last November, has been ordered to pay £28,700 confiscation costs, £500 towards prosecution costs and been given an 18 month conditional discharge. If he does not pay the confiscation costs within six months he will serve a 15 month prison sentence by default.
Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said: "Today’s hearing marks the final chapter in an investigation that has exposed the criminals behind a mass illegal trade in lucrative mobile phone contract information. It also marks a new chapter of effective deterrents on data crime where the courts will act to recover the ill-gotten gains.
"Those who have regular access to thousands of customer details may think that attempts to use it for personal gain will go undetected. But this case shows that there is always an audit trail and my office will do everything in its power to uncover it. The lifestyle the pair gained from their criminal activities has been short lived and I hope this case serves as a strong deterrent to others. I am particularly grateful to T-Mobile for their help in this investigation."
The Proceeds of Crime Act is the legislation which provides for the recovery of the proceeds from crime. This case is the first time the ICO has applied for and been granted use of confiscation orders.
Under the Act, a proportion of any money recovered is given to the prosecuting authority to be used in the prevention and detection of crime. The ICO said it would use its proportion of the money to fund training for its investigation staff.
A T-Mobile spokesman said: "We take the protection of customer data extremely seriously. We welcome the measures taken by the court and hope that this serves as a significant warning to those who seek to profit from unlawfully obtaining customer data."
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