A high-flying IT manager claims his health and career were
ruined when his bank mistakenly posted a warning on an anti-fraud
database branding him as a potential crook. He has launched legal
action against Abbey National, seeking damages expected to run to
tens of thousands of pounds.
Michael Johnson claims he was sacked from top-level roles in the IT
departments at Deutsche Bank, merchant bank UBS and supplier Perot
Systems, after a processing error by Abbey National left his name
tarnished in the financial services industry and resulted in him
becoming almost unemployable.
Johnson is already suing his former employer, Perot Systems, for
more than £10m, alleging that a member of the supplier's staff gave
him a bad job reference that criticised his technical competence
and suggested he had been fired from a job after fraudulently
attempting to gain a mortgage.
Documents lodged in court claimed Abbey National mistakenly issued
a warning about Johnson on the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance
database branding him and his wife potential fraudsters. The
database is widely used by the finance industry to assess
creditworthiness and conduct background checks on staff.
A damning assessment by the Office of the Information Commissioner
subsequently found that Abbey National appeared to be guilty of
several breaches of data protection principles, including holding
inaccurate data and processing it unfairly. The bank's procedures
for checking data and investigating fraud also appeared inadequate
and unreliable, the office said.
After a year of protestations from Johnson, Abbey National wrote to
him apologising for the mistake, which it said had been caused by
having conflicting information in his file.
Johnson claimed in court documents that the episode has left him
virtually unemployable in the finance sector, has excluded him from
a range of financial services, and has forced him to seek medical
and psychiatric help for stress and heart problems.
His troubles began in 1999 when he was a successful senior
associate with Perot Systems, responsible for a team of 30 IT staff
and a budget of £30m at Perot's client, merchant bank UBS Warburg
Dillon Read.
Johnson claimed he was sacked from the job days after an Abbey
National fraud investigator contacted his employer alleging that
Johnson and his wife had attempted to make a fraudulent application
to Abbey National for a joint bank account.
Court documents allege that Johnson subsequently found it
impossible to find work in the finance sector and that he was
advised by recruitment agencies that they no longer wanted to
represent him.
Although Deutsche Bank hired him as a technical manager and
assistant vice-president, Johnson was fired a year later, after
prolonged sick leave, when the bank's vetting service raised
questions about his background.
The vetting report by Zephon Employee Screening referred to an "off
the record" conversation with Perot Systems' global manager Simon
Hull. It claimed Hull said Johnson had been "kicked out of a bank"
after leaving Perot Systems, and suggested it was "something to do
with obtaining a mortgage from the bank fraudulently". Hull is also
alleged to have questioned Johnson's technical ability and said
that working with him had been "the most horrendous episode" in his
working life.
Investigations by Johnson, who used the Data Protection Act to
obtain credit records and other information about him held by Abbey
National and others, revealed that the bank had erroneously filed
an adverse fraud report against him, and had made repeated credit
checks against him which, he claimed, adversely affected his credit
rating.
A discrepancy in Johnson's application for a bank account, caused
by a member of Abbey National staff mistyping the application, was
picked up by the bank's Hunter anti-fraud software, sparking a
formal fraud investigation by Abbey National officials, court
documents said.
In a letter to the Information Commissioner, seen by Computer
Weekly, the bank said it had introduced new procedures to prevent
cases like this occurring in the future.
Johnson's case against Abbey National is expected to be heard later
this year.
Abbey National, Johnson, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Perot Systems have
declined to comment.