It costs businesses £35 to notify under the
DPA, a fee which any business which is a data controller under the
terms of the Act must pay each year. A common scam is for unrelated
third parties to contact companies offering to register them under
the DPA for considerably more than £35.
It was this which netted Francis Boyd £401,545
in a 15 month period. He has been given a jail sentence of two and
a half years by Liverpool Crown Court.
Michael Boyd, Paul Barton and Mark Deary were
given sentences ranging from eight to 18 months for their role in
working with Boyd in 2004 and 2005 to obtain another £206,596.
All four men were charged with conspiracy to obtain money
transfers by deception.
The judge in the case said that the operation
was "a well planned and sophisticated enterprise…a scam cloaked
with the appearance of officialdom".
Notification of the Information Commissioner's
Office is compulsory and the failure of an organisation to notify
that office is a criminal offence. It incurs a fee of £35 and the
ICO says that any agency demanding any more than that should be
ignored.
"If a business receives a letter out of the
blue demanding more than £35 to register under the DPA this will be
a scam," said an ICO statement. "Our simple message to businesses
is to throw the letter in the bin and not to pay the fee
demanded."
The court case is a significant victory, the
ICO said. "We are very pleased with this result," said Philip
Taylor, a soliticor with the ICO. "It sends out a very clear
signal: if you run a bogus data protection agency you will be
investigated and prosecuted."
"This conviction follows a successful
multi-agency operation involving Merseyside Police, Tameside
Trading Standards and staff at the ICO," said Tasylor.
