Information
commissioner launches investigation after obtaining list of companies from
Serious Organised Crime Agency
theguardian.com,
Rob Evans, Monday 2 September 2013
 |
| The information commissioner said Soca had withheld the names of nine firms at the request of the Metropolitan police. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA |
An official
watchdog has launched an investigation into nearly 100 companies and
individuals who are accused of hiring rogue private investigators to gather
information.
The
information commissioner, Christopher Graham, announced on Monday that his
office had opened the investigation after it was handed a confidential list of
98 companies and people by police last week.
The list,
which includes law firms, insurance companies, and firms in the oil and drug
industries, was compiled by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) as part
of its inquiry into private eyes and the "blagging" of personal
information.
The
so-called "blue-chip hacking" list, drawn up during Soca's Operation
Millipede, which led to the conviction of four private detectives for fraud last
year, was recently subject to a row over transparency after it was handed to
MPs on condition the names were not published.
The list
has become controversial following claims that companies other than those in
the media hired private investigators to hack and obtain secret information to
promote their businesses.
The
information commissioner will now examine whether the firms have broken the
Data Protection Act.
According
to a statement by the information commissioner, his investigators will seek
"to establish what information the private investigators provided, and
whether the clients were aware that the law might have been broken to obtain
that information".
If
convicted, the firms could be fined up to £500,000. However, the watchdog may
face an obstacle in bringing prosecutions as it estimated that as many as a
quarter of the firms suspected of being involved in the trade may have been
based outside Britain and therefore outside of its jurisdiction.
The
information commissioner was given more than 20 files last week by Soca,
including correspondence between the firms on the list and the private
investigators, and receipts of payments. His office said details of nine other
firms had been withheld by Soca, following a request by the Metropolitan police,
as they "relate to ongoing police investigations".
The list of
firms is not being disclosed for the time being by the information commissioner
until he can assess the quality of the evidence against them.
Soca has
been criticised for keeping the list secret for several years. The agency only
recently passed on the list to MPs on the home affairs select committee as part
of a parliamentary inquiry into private investigators on condition that those
on it were not named.
Soca says
the list must remain confidential as it is not alleging that the firms or
individuals on it have committed a crime.
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