Police make arrest over eBay sale of council data
Kablenet.com
Published: 03 Sep 2008 08:18 BST
Leicestershire Constabulary has arrested a man following the sale on eBay of a hard drive containing council-tax data from Charnwood Borough Council.
The council said that the buyer of the drive is co-operating with the council and has stated that the data has not been passed to anyone else.
However, the buyer, who lives in Edinburgh, did contact the Daily Mail after trying to contact the council and receiving no response. The newspaper reported that he had easily recovered files on the drive, including council-tax bills, photographs of staff and memos.
Leicestershire Constabulary said it had arrested a 49-year-old man from Shepshed in Leicestershire on suspicion of theft, and released him on police bail pending further enquiries.
Richard Shepherd, the leader of Charnwood Borough Council, said: "I regret the concern caused to Charnwood residents by this serious matter. We have worked vigorously to investigate the case. I am pleased that we have quickly been able to identify and track down the hard drive and deal with the situation appropriately."
"We will give every assistance to the police in their further investigations and I will personally ensure a thorough review is also completed by the council to find out how this happened," he added. The council has also informed the information commissioner of the breach.
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