Ex-WPC stalker accessed target’s bank account
A FORMER police officer jailed for stalking a married man she became ‘fixated’ with was back in the dock for accessing his bank account.
Ashley Boyd, 27, became obsessed with Kevin O’Connor, who is married to her former friend.
A month after getting a job with the Royal Bank of Scotland in December 2016, the mother of one repeatedly accessed his account – while on bail for a stalking charge to which she later pleaded guilty.
As she awaited sentence, Mr O’Connor was concerned Boyd had accessed his personal information, and an audit revealed that had been the case.
She was jailed for stalking him but her sentence was successfully appealed.
Last month at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Boyd admitted breaching data rules by accessing the account at the RBS on Glasgow’s St Vincent Street between January 1 and February 13, 2017, while on bail.
Yesterday Sheriff Barry Divers fined her £1,200 – reduced from £1,800 for her early plea – and gave her 28 days to pay.
Boyd previously pleaded guilty to ‘engaging in a course of conduct which caused Rhona and Kevin O’Connor fear and alarm’ by stalking, between June and September 2016.
She hacked Mr O’Connor’s social media accounts and sent messages about his ‘unhappy marriage’ to people while pretending to be him, and posted an offensive tweet about his wife.
Boyd also admitted trying to pervert the course of justice when she had a friend give a false statement to police taking the blame for the Twitter post.
Last October, Sheriff Paul Crozier jailed her for 11 months and granted a five-year nonharassment order to protect the O’Connors. He branded her conduct ‘evil and calculated to be destructive’. The court heard yesterday this was appealed and Boyd was sentenced to two years’ supervision and 200 hours of unpaid work instead.
In December 2016, Boyd began working on the mortgage outbound customer care department at RBS on Glasgow’s St Vincent Street.
Procurator fiscal depute Clare Macaulay said: ‘In September 2017, after she had pleaded guilty to the stalking matter and was awaiting sentence, Mr O’Connor, who is an RBS customer, contacted the bank as he had learned that the accused, who was previously a police officer, had become an employee of RBS. He was concerned that the accused may have accessed his private banking information as part of continuing her stalking campaign.’
An audit showed Boyd had accessed his account ‘on a number of occasions’ between January 21 and February 13, 2017.
Defence lawyer Lene Doherty said Boyd was remorseful and ‘is trying to put that part of her life behind her’.
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