back to article ICO: You call that a sentence? Courts need power to hit data thieves harder

Blighty's data watchdog has moaned that the UK's courts needs greater powers to impose penalties on data thieves after a woman was slapped with a £1,000 for flogging 28,000 customer records for £5,000. Sindy Nagra, 42, from Hayes, was issued the fine by Isleworth Crown Court on Friday. She was an admin assistant at a car …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    joke

    surely the fines should be "per data subject", with the data subjects also given the right to claim damages / costs if any loss or suffering as a result?

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: joke

      That is far too good of an idea to ever be implemented.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: joke

        The court seems to have found that she hasn't got any money so suing her for more is unlikely to be much more than an administrative exercise which wastes the courts time... and costs the tax payer.

        Better to give her a 1000 pound fine which if she can realistically pay it and then perhaps give her community service for six months.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    er...

    What's that, she has no money to pay the fine... but you want to increase it?

    Punishment should fit the crime: Make her 'work', the job being signing up with her personal details to all the shite websites that collect this info for "marketing" purposes, 50 a day for a month or two should be about right, might teach her some respect for data privacy.

    1. andykb3

      Re: er...

      They didn't necessarily want bigger fines, but other punishments such as suspended (or not) prison sentences etc. Sounds fair enough to me.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: er...

        Suspended: by the thumbs, or maybe with the hands (tied behind the back of course) as in strappado

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: er...

        suspended prison sentence, community service, work it off (hourly equivalent at min wage) - there are lots of options, but saying "she hasn't got any money, so let her off lightly" should not be one of them?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: er...

          suspended prison sentence.......there are lots of options

          Come off it! Anybody willing to break the law in the first place will not regard a suspended sentence as a punishment, they'll go home and celebrate.

          The only reason we have suspended sentences in the first place is because there are too few prison places for the number of offenders who might otherwise receive a custodial sentence, not because it is any form of valid punishment (or incentive to reform).

          1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

            Re: er...

            One reason for custodial sentences is rehabilitation. A suspended sentence can be "unsuspended" easily, thus the criminal has an incentive to cooperate with the rehabilitation process.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: er...

      >What's that, she has no money to pay the fine... but you want to increase it?

      M'lud my clients have spent all the money they robbed from the bank and are now unemployed (until the Croyden post-office job comes up) and so feel that a fine of 10% of the proceeds would be appropriate.

      1. Mark 110

        Re: er...

        1000/5000 = 20% Surely

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: er...

          But m'lud I feel that my clients should be treated more leniently - after all they have to pay my fee.

  3. A Ghost
    Big Brother

    When you say 'Data Thieves'...

    ...does this include Google and Microsoft et al?

    Thought not. Anyway...

    All this is fun and games till it's your medical records being leaked, or worse, the fact that you are on a list of 'grasses'. Already happened with the latter iirc. But it's the odd 'data leak' here or there that specifically targets individuals who grass on specific criminals, I would worry about, just for one off the cuff example. This is why I wouldn't waste my time reporting crime to the police, I don't trust that that very information wouldn't get back into the hands of the person I was reporting.

    Sad times we live in.

    Trust no one, keep your head down, and pray that when this stuff does get leaked, you are more a part of the haystack, rather than the needle.

    I consider the fact my housing association can view my medical records legally, to be a form of 'data theft', 'data rape' in fact.

    Anyone with any illusions that this is not going to happen to them at some point soon is living in cloud cuckoo land. 2015 - the year the internet and the dream died. Accept it - you are gonna get data raped.

    As for this miscreant in this particular story, lynching might be a bit of an over reaction, but 10 years in the nick I'd be happy with. She got away with it really. £5000 grand for the data theft and a £1000 fine. Doesn't say whether she had the money confiscated or not.

    I really don't think people appreciate the gravity of the situation we are now in, and what a pivotal momental year it was that just passed. We are now officially living in interesting times. They should have set a precedent with this scumbag, but of course, they don't want to make a rod for their own back...

  4. Vimes

    The ICO would do better asking themselves whey they fail to take appropriate action so frequently rather than complain about others.

    Just look at what's happened with Safe Harbour up til now: they're far more intent on legitimising the activities of the companies exporting our data rather than actually ENFORCING THE LAW (apparently expecting them to do their job is a 'knee-jerk reaction').

  5. Adam 52 Silver badge

    To put this into context, you can be sentenced for the fifth ABH in a string of seventy assault convictions and still get away with a £70 fine.

    Much as I dislike data thieves, including MS and Google, I'd much rather the prison places went on thugs.

    Talking of data loss and thugs, anyone else remember the original reason Borris Johnson got invited onto Have I Got News for You all those years ago.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      So change the law so it isn't illegal.

      Having something illegal but you only bother to use heavy penalties against people you don't like isn't exactly the basis for democracy.

      1. Adam 52 Silver badge

        I tend to agree with you, but most people don't. We could eliminate speeding by introducing the death penalty for it but most people would agree that whilst we should have speed limits that is overkill; and some might even suggest that the current fines are just "a tax on motorists".

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "that is overkill; "

          "no, that's just enough kill."

          Sorry, Buffy reference on El Reg. It's been a weird day.

  6. Old Handle

    I'm not usually the tough on crime type, but I'd have to agree she got off lightly with a fine that's less than the proceeds of her crime.

  7. Jonathan Richards 1

    Proceeds of crime?

    There are provisions in the UK legal system for the confiscation of the proceeds of crime, independently of any fine. Perhaps this is the correct course for deterring future offences. As it stands now, this individual has a £4,000 profit balance (although no job, and a criminal record...)

    Edit: Wired-gov.net reports that the chap she sold the data to also got a fine of £1000.

  8. MisterD

    Data abuse needs to take in a compensatory layer. A minimum compensation of £20 per victim should suffice, with the ability to double it in aggravated circumstances. a £1000 fine would be adequate if accompanied by a £560,000 compensation order.

  9. Andrew Taylor 1

    Law about to change

    Now leaked documents prove the the PM's Trust Fund is built on tax avoidance, expect big changes in Data Protection Laws and stricter enforcement. The current laws were OK when it was only the plebs being affected.

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