Firm fined over personal data

A judge has handed out fines totalling £185,000 after a firm of loss adjusters used private detectives to illegally obtain personal data to investigate a suspicious insurance claim.

The company Woodgate and Clark Ltd will have to pay £50,000, retired joint managing director Michael Woodgate, 67, £75,000 and employee Colum Tudball, 54, of Farriers Walk, Kingsnorth, £30,000. Private detective Adam Spears, 78, of Lydd- on- Sea, had his f i ne reduced to £10,000 because of his limited means, and another PI, Daniel Summers, 38, who has fled to Cyprus, was fined £20,000.

They were each ordered at Maidstone Crown Court to pay £25,000 costs, apart from Spears, who will pay £2,500.

Woodgate & Clark Ltd, in West Malling, denied t wo charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data between January and March 2005 and two of unlawfully disclosing personal data in March 2005.

The firm was convicted of the di s c l o s i ng pers o nal dat a offences and acquitted of the obtaining personal data charges.

Tudball denied two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data between January and March 2005, but was convicted of both.

Spears denied two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data between January and March 2005 and two offences of unlawfully disclosing personal data between February and March 2005, but was convicted of all four. Michael Woodgate, of Mereworth, denied two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data between January and March 2005 and two charges of unlawfully disclosing personal data in March 2005.

He was convicted of all charges apart from one of obtaining personal data.

Summers, now l i ving i n Cyprus, was tried in his absence and treated as pleading not guilty to the same charges as Spears. He was also convicted.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC said the company had an annual turnover of £12m.

Passing sentence, he said: “I regard the offending as serious. The purpose was plainly commercial. In my judgement, the use of unlawful means to further business i n this way requires deterrence.”

‘I regard the offending as serious. The purpose was plainly commercial’

Michael Woodgate, left, and Colum Tudball were fined £75,000 and £30,000 respectively by Judge Charles Macdonald at Maidstone Crown Court

Picture: Chris Davey