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An ex-employee of a UK based gambling firm who unlawfully obtained and then sold personal date was found guilty of committing three offences under 55 of the Data Protection Act. Marc Ben-Ezra from Finchley, received a three year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1700 damages to Cashcade Ltd plus court costs of £830.80.

“This case shows that the unlawful trade in personal information is unfortunately still a thriving and lucrative activity. Mr Ben-Ezra sold people’s personal details on an industrial scale, making in the region of £25,000 at the expense of the tens of thousands of bingo players whose privacy he compromised and who he exposed to the nuisance of being approached by rival betting websites and, at worst, the risk of identity theft.

“I am grateful to Cashcade Ltd and Gala Coral for their work in exposing this unlawful practice. However, we still don’t have a punishment that fits the crime. The ICO continues to push for the government to activate the 2008 legislation that would allow courts to consider other penalties like community service orders or the threat of prison.” said Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham.

Ben-Ezra sent a series of emails to numerous gambling industry contacts in May 201 offering the data for sale. The emails were signed off Malcolm Edwards and contained sample data relating to 400 Foxy Bingo players.

Cashcade, who markets Foxy Bingo and is responsible for data control for the site, looked into information was obtained using a special investigative services company. They did a deal with Ben-Ezra for over 65,000 Foxy Bingo customer's personal information at a cost of £1700. Cashcade then passed this information onto the ICO and helped the investigators to track down the individual responsible.

It is thought that the customer information, which did not include bank details, was unlawfully obtained in 2008 and was then purchased by Ben-Ezra, who worked for an Israeli poker company at the time. Cashcade has so far been unable to locate how this information was obtained in the first place, though they did say that no customer accounts were compromised.

Amongst the email sent by Ben-Ezra was some information relating to 404 Gala Coral customers. Gal's Data Controller has stated that they believe the information was illegally obtained from their management information system.

In August of this year, Ben-Ezra was identified as the individual responsible for taking and selling he data, after the email address used was traced back to his Father-in-Law. Ben-Ezra co-operated fully with the ICO and handed over all the relevant laptops containing the information. Whilst being interviewed, he admitted the offences and said that this was a regular occurrence in the gaming industry in Israel. The reason he sold the information was to clear gambling debts he had amassed.

So far no customers involved in this data breach, have complained. Foxy Bingo and Gala Bingo has contacted each of the customers and has made assurances that their information is secure.

It is a criminal offence to unlawfully obtain or access personal data under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. In a Magistrates Court this offence is punishable by a fine of up to £5000 and can be issued as an unlimited fine in Crown Court. The ICO is calling for more effective sentences to deter individuals from committing these offences, they want courts to be able to threaten prison in a bid to stamp this kind of crime out.