Robert Verkaik reports:
Police officers found to have illegally disclosed information from confidential databases have been named in a dossier handed to ministers.
The report, compiled by the information watchdog, shows how personal information from private and public bodies is being used to commit more serious crimes.
In one case, a pensioner died after a policeman passed on his address to a man who later went to his house and threw a brick through his window after a parking dispute in a supermarket. The 79-year-old from Derby later died from the shock of the attack. [Note: this case resulted in manslaughter charges against the brick-thrower, covered on PogoWasRight.org here — Dissent].
In another case, an Essex police officer was found to have unlawfully searched the Police National Computer and other intelligence systems 800 times.
Read more in The Independent.
Teletext.co.uk provides additional details:
In one case, a pensioner died after a police officer passed on his address to a man who later went to his house and threw a brick through his window following a parking dispute. The 79-year-old man from Derby later died from the shock of the attack and two men were convicted of manslaughter.
But the police officer who provided the information was fined just £1,200, the report said.
In another case, a member of staff at Essex Police accessed intelligence systems “on some 800 occasions” between January 2007 and November 2008, but a judge was left astonished that he could only fine the offender £750. Among other things, he passed on mobile telephone records, checked up on his housemate’s two sisters and accessed the record of another man’s arrest, the report found.