Married cops sold car crash victims’ data for £363k to live high life
TWO married police officers sold confidential details of car crash victims for £363,000 and used the cash to fund their luxury lifestyle.
nigel Mungur, 40, looked up the names of road accident casualties on the police computer at Lancashire Constabulary where he and his wife, nicola, 37, both worked as police constables.
He then sold the details on to ‘ no-win, no-fee’ claims management firms, who cold- called the accident victims to urge them to seek compensation.
Chester Crown Court heard that Mungur pocketed the cash over seven years and used it to buy sports cars, exotic holidays and champagne-fuelled days out at the races.
But the scam unravelled when casualties complained that they were being called by the ambulance-chasing firms – despite only ever handing their details to the police.
In one case, a man involved in a collision said he was contacted by a claims firm before a police officer had even arrived at his home to take a statement.
Last week Mungur was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, money laundering and unauthorised access to a computer between March 2007 and April 2014.
His wife – who knew about the scam but turned a blind eye to it – admitted obtaining personal data and was conditionally discharged for 12 months.
Mungur – who drove both a Porsche 924 and an Alfa Romeo Spyder – and his wife spent some of the money on holidays abroad and larking around in fancy dress.
Their snapshots show the disgraced officer posing in an Arabian headdress, or keffiyeh, while his wife anotherboa mask. posing moustache,and wears Mungurin shota his policeanda wifehe policecanin wears helmeta a sombrero.also masqueradehelmet.a andbe featherseen fakeIn
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He would upload screen shots of confidential information – often hundreds at a time – from the police computer to a virtual storage site and share a link to the images with accomplice John Helton, a contractor for a claims firm. The time,and reportingthe informationdate personal incidentsand place details includedto of the collisionsof police. peoplethe Mungur sent text messages to his wife referring to payments received and how much money they would make in the coming year. In one message he complained that he was the one ‘taking all of the risks’. He set up his own business, Personal Injury Company, to sell his leads on. Even when its licence was revoked in early 2009, Mungur failed to stop. Instead he applied to set up another, paying the registration fee with a cheque signed by his wife to avoid any problems. Father- of-three Mungur and his wife, from Liverpool, were sacked by Lancashire police in March last year after being found guilty of a string of disciplinary charges, including breaching standards of professional behaviour in the areas of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.
Helton, 37, also from Liverpool, admitted conspiracy to convert criminal property and conspiracy to commit unauthorised access to a computer. He received a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.