Kingdom notebooks with details of litter offenders stolen from council’s HQ
POLICE are investigating after Kingdom notebooks containing personal details of dozens of people fined for littering were stolen from a council office.
Anglesey Council apologised after the theft of the data which included names, addresses and dates of birth were taken from a locked cupboard.
The authority sent out data breach notices to people whose information was stolen from the books used by Kingdom Security.
The exact number of people affected has yet to be confirmed.
The council reported the theft of four PACE (police and criminal evidence) books with the personal information of individuals who had received fixed penalty notices “in the course of waste management enforcement work” on April 13. The letter sent out last week said: “We deeply regret this incident has occurred and await an update of the criminal investigation. We are currently conducting an internal investigation in relation to this reported theft.”
The council also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
An ICO spokeswoman said: “We are aware of an incident involving Anglesey Council and are making enquiries.”
Anglesey Council would not comment on the theft as the matter was still a criminal investigation.
Kingdom spokesman Ashley Govier said people should not be pointing the finger at them.
“It’s a police matter. The council said the books were stolen from a council holding. They were in a locked cupboard. It should be secured. Our officers couldn’t take those books home. They were left securely on site. Somebody stole them. We didn’t lose them. They actually stole them. It’s council data. The information on them is for the council not for us. We are being blamed for everything. We didn’t lose them.”
Lancashire-based Kingdom is tasked with handing out fines across Anglesey, Conwy, Flintshire, Wrexham and Denbighshire for dropping litter and dog fouling offences. Councils take a cut of the fines, with Kingdom retaining most of the revenue, leading to claims it encourages officers to issue as many fines as possible which they deny.
Although Anglesey Council is no longer continuing with its 12-month trial after May 2018, it has a separate agreement with Kingdom to handle parking until December. Last month Gwynedd Council, whose use of Kingdom lasted just hours, decided to team up with another council, possibly Anglesey, or use its own staff in future on litter duties.
Officers from Kingdom were on the streets of Gwynedd for less than a day before the agreement was abruptly scrapped in March.