Ex-British Gas man faces clink over customer data theft

A former British Gas employee is facing the prospect of a spell behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing a huge file of customer data and then selling it on to brokers for £45,000.

Chintan Paida appeared before Leicester Magistrates’ Court late last week to enter his pleas to two offences from June 2023, after being charged by police.

Paida admitted obtaining personal data without consent, which is a crime under the 2018 Data Protection Act. He also pleaded guilty to theft by an employee, a crime under the Theft Act 1968.

Magistrates, who only have the power to hand down sentences of up to 12 months, have referred the case up to Leicester Crown Court for a stiffer sentence.

Prosecutor Gabriella Orthodoxou told the magistrates: “This matter should be committed for sentence. The defendant was employed by British Gas. He stole data worth £45,000 and sold it on to brokers.”

The magistrates released Paida on unconditional bail to appear at Leicester Crown Court next month. He was ordered to participate in the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

According to a report in the Leicester Mercury, the chair of the bench, Mary Elizabeth Crosskey, said: “We are going to commit this to be heard at the Crown Court because our sentencing powers don’t go far enough to allow us to make the sentence you’re likely to receive.”

Exact details of his actions have not been reported, nor which department he worked in, but despite data theft cases of this nature rarely resulting in stiff sentences, those who steal car crash data are regularly fingered.

In fact, just six weeks ago, eight men from the North-West were found guilty of unlawfully accessing and obtaining people’s personal data from vehicle repair garages to generate potential leads for personal injury claims, following the UK’s largest ever nuisance call investigation.

The verdict followed an 10-week trial and an extensive investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office, during which the regulator claimed to have seized the widest body of evidence it had ever seen, demonstrating the misuse of people’s personal details. This data was ultimately used to make nuisance calls to try to persuade people to make personal injury claims.

Even so, one of the so-called “gang of eight”, Craig Cornick, who was prosecuted by the ICO, hit back at the regulator, insisting there was no evidence of financial gain or criminal intent.