Welfare data thief jailed
Civil servant gets one year for selling finance details to private eyes in ‘one of the most serious cases yet’
A CIVIL servant who sold the personal details of hundreds of social welfare recipients was jailed for 12 months yesterday.
Rory Lenihan, 50, was paid almost €22,000 over three years by private investigators while he worked at the Department of Social Protection.
Speaking after the case, Tony Delaney of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner said that it ‘stands out as one of the most serious data breaches ever uncovered in this State’.
Prosecutor Alex Owens told the judge that Paul Bradley, the former clerical officer’s supervisor, became suspicious when Lenihan, of Ballaghderg, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, began spending lunch breaks on the phone at his desk in September 2010.
Letterkenny Circuit Court heard that Mr Bradley told his supervisor Des Kernan, and an internal probe was launched, including a review of files Lenihan was checking. The pair approached Lenihan and he admitted selling clients’ details – including loans and locations – since January 2008.
The court heard he faced 41 charges amounting to a total theft of €21,898, but admitted 12 sample counts. The court also heard he was paid €23 for information on each person by two private investigators: a John Buckley, based on the Navan Road in Dublin, and a Brian Foy, with a business address in Leixlip, Co. Kildare.
Judge John Aylmer described Lenihan’s offences as mid-range. He noted they took place when the father of five was struggling financially and have cost him his job, his marriage and effectively made him a ‘pariah’.
Lenihan’s sister Maria told the court they had been brought up in a law-abiding family who owned a shop in Dublin. She said they were standing by her brother, who had no criminal record, and described him as a good man, father and person who had made a mistake.
Defence barrister Peter Nolan said his client was the only one before the court despite the fact that two others were involved.
He added: ‘It seems to me Mr Lenihan is the one carrying the can for the actions of two other people who were at least aiders and abetters.
‘He would not have given the information if he was not called and financial inducement offered. These two other gentlemen, for some reason best known to the DPP, were not. His friends, family and parents are devastated.
‘He’s the man who stole and got sacked from his department and cannot be trusted. He is a pariah to a large extent.’
Mr Nolan said that sometimes ‘the doing of the crime far outweighs any punishment that can be given, and he will be punished until the day he dies’. He continued: ‘I ask you to consider that and the impact the publicity will also have. I will ask you to view him not as a criminal but as a man who has committed a stupid criminal act, for what – for €21,000?
‘These were the actions of a desperate man in financial straits. I don’t see what it would be achieved in sending him to jail.’
However, the judge said there was a significant breach of trust and privacy of citizens’ information in the department in Letterkenny, so he had no option but to impose a prison term.
Judge Aylmer sentenced Lenihan to two years on each of the 12 sample charges but suspended the last 12 months of each term,
‘Scandalous and appalling’
all of which will run concurrently.
Following the case, Assistant Date Protection Commissioner Mr Delaney said: ‘That a civil servant, who had ready access for the performance of his official duties to the social welfare records of every customer of the department, abused his position and trawled through those records and passed on personal information from them to private investigators in exchange for corrupt payments, is scandalous and appalling.’
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