Huge inquiry after a million people’s data stolen from garages | Manchester News

Eight men have been convicted over the theft of a million people’s personal details from vehicle garages across the UK.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it was “one of the largest nuisance call cases” they had seen.

Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, said: “This case uncovered a vast, murky criminal network where crash details were stolen from garages across England, Scotland and Wales and traded to fuel distressing predatory calls.”

The group, which conducted their crimes between 2014 and 2017, were due to be sentenced at a later date at Bolton Crown Court.

Jurors at a 10-week trial heard how the ICO seized the “widest body of evidence it has ever seen”, highlighting the misuse of personal data for nuisance calls to persuade people to make personal injury claims.

The investigation began in 2016 when the owner of a car repair garage in County Durham contacted the regulator with concerns after customers blamed him for the calls they were receiving.

The watchdog said their investigation “snowballed into one of the largest nuisance call cases the ICO has ever dealt with”.

Investigators then arrested eight people from Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

The ICO also found devices with 4.5 million documents,144,000 spreadsheets and 241,000 emails.

These also contained 1.5 million images and 83,000 multimedia files.

Investigators obtained personal data of about one million people from garages without their consent before selling them to claims management firms.

The ICO said it expected further prosecutions of people “embedded into insurance companies and claims management companies with the sole aim of stealing personal data” as part of the second phase of its investigation.

The convicted men included:

• Craig Cornick, 40, of Prestbury, guilty of conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act.
• Thomas Daly, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data.
• Vincent McCartan, 30, of Failsworth – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act and conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to data held on computer systems contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
• Ian Flanagan, 40, of Macclesfield – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act and conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to data held on computer systems contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
• Mark Preece, 44, of Manchester – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act and conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to data held on computer systems contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
• Kiernan Thorlby, 35, of Macclesfield – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act and conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to data held on computer systems contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
• Fahad Moktadir, 32, of Stockport – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act.
• Adam Crompton, 35, of Northwich – pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to unlawfully obtain personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act.