People stealing, selling and using other people's personal
data could soon be sent to prison for their crimes rather than just
facing fines.
The government could introduce prison sentences for people
involved in stealing or using of people's personal data.
Justice minister Michael Wills said it is time to consider "more
robust" penalties than the current fines.
A public consultation was launched by the Ministry of Justice
last week.
The consultation paper proposes introducing prison sentences as
the maximum punishments.
People who are convicted could be imprisoned for up to two years
if the case is heard in the Crown Court, and up to 12 months if
heard in the magistrates court.
"The knowing and reckless misuse of personal data is a serious
criminal offence. We have been monitoring this illegal trade
closely with the help of the information commissioner and as there
is a great deal of concern about the protection of personal data we
think the time has now come to consider a more robust penalty,"
said Justice minister Michael Wills.
Jamie Cowper, director of marketing at data encryption expert
PGP Corporation, welcomed the consultation. "Current penalties -
fines of just a few thousand pounds - act as no deterrent to
professional data thieves who can potentially make 10 to 20 times
more than this by selling their ill gotten gains to the highest
bidder. Custodial sentences, such as those proposed by the Ministry
of Justice, may make them think twice in the future."
The number of UK identify fraud has increased by 36% in the past
year according to research released today to mark the start of
National Identify Fraud Prevention last week.
The consultation closes on 7 January 2010.
Businesses are calling for tougher sentences >>.