A FIRM of loss adjusters has been fined £50,000 for unlawfully disclosing personal data which had been obtained illegally by senior employees and rogue private investigators.

The case related to personal information of the man who owned the Voodoo Lounge in Accrington at the time of a fire which ravaged the nightclub in December 2004.

The club and bar in Willow Street was closed for seven years after the major blaze just before Christmas of that year.

Maidstone Crown Court was told how in the aftermath of the fire the victim had put in an insurance claim. But private investigators unlawfully obtained his confidential financial information, including details of banking transactions, and disclosed it to Kent-based Woodgate and Clark Ltd.

Senior staff there then disclosed it to an insurer client.

The case was part of an ongoing Information Commissioner’s Office investigation into allegations of a criminal trade in confidential personal information involving corporate clients suspected of using the services of rogue private investigators.

Speaking after the hearing, information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: “The illegal trade in personal information is not only a criminal offence but a serious erosion of the privacy rights of UK citizens.

“As well as these record fines, the organisations and individuals involved also face serious reputational damage as a result of being prosecuted by the ICO.”

Following the trial Woodgate and Clark Ltd was convicted of two counts of unlawfully disclosing personal data. It was fined £50,000 and was ordered to pay £20,000 costs .

Woodgate and Clark director Michael Woodgate, 67, of West Malling, Kent, was convicted on one charge of unlawfully obtaining personal data and two counts of unlawful disclosing personal data. He was fined £75,000 with £20,000 costs.

Colum Tudball, 54, of Farriers Walk, Ashford, Kent, senior loss adjuster at Woodgate and Clark, was convicted on two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data. He was fined £30,000 with £20,000 costs.

Private investigator Daniel Summers, 38, of Pilgrim Close, Cardiff, was convicted in his absence of two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data and two counts of unlawfully disclosing personal data. He was fined £20,000 and was ordered to pay £20,000 costs.

Private investigator Adam John Spears, 78, of Lydd-on-Sea, Kent, was convicted of two charges of unlawfully obtaining personal data and two counts of unlawfully disclosing personal data. He was fined £10,000 and was ordered to pay £2,500 costs.