As a follow-up to a case reported on this blog previously:
Dale Trever, 22, a data quality manager at Hull Primary Care Trust, has pleaded guilty to snooping through patients’ medical records over 400 times. Most of them were the records of family members, friends, and colleagues. Anh Nguyen reports in Computerworld (UK):
At Hull Crown Court, Trever pleaded guilty to seven counts of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990 by accessing patients’ medical records without authority.
According to his lawyer, Trever denied copying, printing or altering any medical records. He is due to be sentenced next month.
All you UK lawyers out there: does the Computer Misuse Act lend itself to stiffer penalties than prosecuting under the Data Protection Act? What is the strongest act protecting medical privacy that can be used for criminal charges?