Crash details sold by Aviva manager to cold callers
AN INSIDER at insurance giant Aviva made tens of thousands of pounds after stealing the personal details of car accident victims.
The details were sold on to a claims management company and then to firms of solicitors which bombarded the victims with nuisance calls.
The case turns the spotlight on a wider problem of insurance company insiders being paid or pressured to pass on customer details.
It also raises questions about whether the firms are protecting customers’ personal information effectively.
A court was told yesterday how Matthew Cooper, 28, abused his position as a manager in Aviva’s bodily injury claims department to access claimants’ records. Cooper, from
‘Formal business relationship’
Wythenshawe, near Manchester, received a total of £22,000. He admitted fraud by abuse of position.
He was in the dock with Oliver Simpson, 32, from Manchester, a social contact, who made more than £35,000 by selling the personal details of Aviva customers to the claims management company.
Prosecutor Andrew McIntosh told Manchester Crown Court that in 2012, Aviva received complaints from clients contacted by firms offering to pursue compensation claims.
He said: ‘Aviva found that Mr Cooper had been accessing a number of files.
‘ He had been found to have accessed 13,788 claims between July 2012 and September 2013. There was no record of him having done any work on those claims.’
Cooper told investigators that he sold the data to a third party called Steve for cash. He would pass on names, phone numbers and dates of claims to an email address.
The details were sold on to a legitimate claims management company called Heyworth Finance registered with the Information Commissioner.
It subsequently emerged that Cooper’s co-accused Simpson had sold names, addresses and contact numbers of Aviva customers to the same company for £35,597 between 2012 and 2013. The court heard he had no legitimate source for this information.
It also heard the accused knew each other socially, but no formal business relationship between the two had been proved.
Shirlie Duckworth, representing Cooper, said he acted in a ‘shortsighted response’ to personal financial difficulties. He was given a tenmonth jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid community work.
Simpson, who admitted failing to register himself with the Information Commissioner, was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs. Andrew Morrish, of Aviva, said the company did ‘not tolerate data theft’.