Car rental boss guilty of data theft

An Enterprise Rent A Car boss has been ordered to pay just over £800 for stealing 2,000 customers’ records, reinforcing claims that the paltry punishments make data theft worth the risk of getting caught.
Wirral Magistrates Court heard how “greedy” 29-year-old Stephen Siddell stole the records of customers – who had been involved in accidents while renting cars – and flogged them to a claims management company.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car alerted the ICO after its security systems showed an irregularity, and, acting on this information, the Information Commissioner’s Office raided a claims management company based in the Liverpool area.
The raid resulted in over 500 records being recovered relating to car hire arranged by Enterprise Rent-A-Car on behalf of insurance companies, whose customers had been involved in a recent accidents.
The records were traced to Siddell, who had used his position as manager of the rental firm’s Southport branch to print the customers’ details. The ICO was able to establish that Siddell printed the details of more than 1,900 people between 14 October 2011 and 4 November 2011.
Siddell was fined £500, ordered to pay a £50 victim surcharge and £264.08 prosecution costs, triggering renewed calls from the ICO for more effective deterrent sentences, including the threat of prison, to be available to the courts to stop the unlawful use of personal information.
ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said: “This man was motivated by greed. Stephen Siddell betrayed his employer and exploited over 1,900 customers for personal gain.
“Data theft is not a victimless crime and many of the people targeted by Siddell and the claims management company will have received nuisance calls offering to pursue a personal injury claim. Siddell was happy to exploit people after they had recently had an accident, when they may have already been suffering mentally and physically. He is now facing the consequences of his crimes.”