Car rental hard data thieves sentenced after ICO investigation

Former employees of Enterprise-Rent-A-Car have been sentenced for conspiring to steal customer information that accident claims companies could use to make nuisance calls and sell on as individual injury claims.

Details of ems of thousands of customers from the car hire company were sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds, leading to unlawful contact from ‘ambulance chasers’ making cold calls about private injury, in a scheme that ran for almost two and a half years.

Andrew Minty, Jamie Leong and Michelle Craddock, who at various times worked for Enterprise in Cardiff or Aldershot, all pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court on four January to conspiracy to commit offences under the Data Protection Act.

Minty was fined £7,500, which he has to pay within two years or face three months custody. Leong and Craddock, who had less involvement in the conspiracy and had either paid greater amounts of damages or been affected more by previous civil proceedings, were given twelve month conditional discharges but ordered to pay £3,000 and £1,200 in prosecution costs respectively.

As well as this week’s criminal proceedings brought by the Information Commissioner’s Office, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car has previously issued civil proceedings against the defendants. This resulted in the defendants paying the company £400,000 in civil compensation in total inbetween them.

Steve Eckersley, ICO Head of Enforcement, said:

“Car rental companies have details of drivers who have been in a road accident and need to hire a vehicle whilst theirs is out of activity. These details are valuable leads to companies which make money from encouraging accident victims to make claims.

“This prosecution was the result of an ICO investigation brought about after Enterprise found out what was happening. These individuals had a long running agreement to manhandle the trust placed in them to look after precious private details. The problem of data thieves trading individual information is very concerning and one we’re cracking down on.”

A fourth defendant remains wished on a warrant.

1. The Information Commissioner’s Office upholds information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bods and data privacy for individuals.

1. The ICO has specific responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations two thousand four and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

1. The ICO can take activity to switch the behaviour of organisations and individuals that collect, use and keep individual information. This includes criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement and audit. The ICO has the power to impose a monetary penalty on a data controller of up to £500,000.

1. Anyone who processes private information must obey with eight principles of the Data Protection Act, which make sure that individual information is:

• fairly and lawfully processed;
• processed for limited purposes;
• adequate, relevant and not excessive;
• accurate and up to date;
• not kept for longer than is necessary;
• processed in line with your rights;
• secure; and
• not transferred to other countries without adequate protection.

1. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) sit alongside the Data Protection Act. They give people specific privacy rights in relation to electronic communications.

There are specific rules on:

• marketing calls, emails, texts and faxes;
• cookies (and similar technologies);
• keeping communications services secure; and
• customer privacy as regards traffic and location data, itemised billing, line identification, and directory listings.

We aim to help organisations obey with PECR and promote good practice by suggesting advice and guidance. We will take enforcement activity against organisations that persistently overlook their obligations.

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