Council employee fined after unlawfully supplying info to letting agent

A council employee has been fined and ordered to pay costs after unlawfully supplying information on individuals in receipt of housing and council tax benefit.

Ounkar Singh Nainu, a customer service advisor at Slough Borough Council, was caught after the local authority received an anonymous tip-off that he had been accessing the data.

The recipients, a Slough letting agent and one of its directors, were found guilty of committing offences under s. 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

SAI Property Investments Limited, trading as IPS Property Services and represented at the hearing by director Punjab Sandhu, was fined £260 for two offences under the 1998 Act. It was also ordered to pay £702.08 in prosecution costs plus a £15 victim surcharge.

Another director, Sundeep Jaswal, was fined £260 for two offences. He was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge and £351.03 in prosecution costs.

Nainu was meanwhile fined £690 at Reading Magistrates’ Court for three DPA offences, and ordered to pay £351.03 in prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of £15.

In September 2009 Jaswal contacted Nainu and asked him to obtain personal data about some of their tenants from housing benefit records. The information, which was provided without the council’s knowledge, was used by the company to chase up tenants' debts.

In March 2010 another attempt was made to obtain further information from Slough’s records, although this proved unsuccessful.

After receiving the tip-off the council launched an immediate investigation and reported the incidents to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said the case highlighted the need for a more appropriate range of deterrent punishments to be made available to the courts. The watchdog has previously called for the introduction of custodial sentences.

Graham added: “There must be no further delay in introducing tougher powers to enforce the Data Protection Act, otherwise unscrupulous individuals will continue to see a mere fine as a price worth paying.”