RAC boss’s £25,000 cold-call data scam
She sold driver details to ambulance chaser firm
SUNNING herself on a pristine Thai beach, Kim Doyle enjoys a break from the rather less glamorous world of car repairs.
And the former RAC manager may well have had plenty to spend during her trip – after a scam that led to her customers being plagued by cold calls.
Doyle, 33, pocketed £25,000 by selling the details of thousands of drivers to an ambulance-chasing personal injury firm.
She handed over names, addresses and phone numbers of more than 4,500 RAC members involved in accidents to make ‘easy money’, a court heard.
The customers were then bombarded with ‘umpteen irritating’ calls urging them to claim compensation, a court heard.
The six-month scam was uncovered only
‘Not a victimless crime’
when a delivery driver whose van had been towed away by the RAC after a prang complained of being repeatedly cold-called.
Investigations revealed his registration and mobile number in Doyle’s email inbox plus details of other RAC customers who had been involved in road traffic accidents on her computer.
Doyle was sacked and an inquiry revealed at least £13,500 had been deposited in her bank account by the firm, LIS Claims. Investigators believe, however, she made almost double that figure in the scam. Her social media pages feature pictures of her on exotic holidays, including in what appears to be Thailand.
Doyle, who now works for KwikFit, avoided prison on Monday after admitting conspiracy to unlawfully access and sell data at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court. She was handed an eightmonth jail term, suspended for two years, after a judge said she was a ‘hard working member of the community’. William Shaw, 33, who made £15,000 from the racket while running Leeds- based TMS Stratosphere, which traded as LIS Claims, received the same sentence after admitting similar offences.
Aaminah Khan, prosecuting for the Information Commissioner’s Office, said Doyle and Shaw met through their work in autumn 2017. Around six months later, a complaint was received by the ICO from the RAC following an internal inquiry. The ICO executed a search warrant at Doyle’s home, in Worsley, Manchester, and seized her mobile phone. It revealed deleted WhatsApp messages to Shaw and evidence she had been accessing the RAC’s computer system from home, which was not generally allowed.
Ian Whitehurst, defending Doyle, who worked as an RAC performance manager for 12 years, said she was ‘ extremely embarrassed and ashamed’. Sentencing, Recorder Paul Taylor said she and Shaw were contributing to their families and communities by being employed and stopped short of jailing them.
He ordered Doyle to pay back £25,000 and Shaw, of Urmston, Manchester, to refund £15,000 by April or face three months in prison.
He also ordered both to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay £1,000 costs.
Mike Shaw, head of criminal investigations at the ICO, said: ‘Those who believe that this is a victimless crime without consequences need to think again.’