ICO received £17,000 after T-Mobile data theft convictions

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) received £17,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act after helping to bring about the successful conviction of two former T-Mobile workers for selling customer data.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith said at an event in London at law firm Bird & Bird that the watchdog received the money as part of the £75,000 fine handed down to the convicted staff.

Smith also revealed that the ICO is preparing to fine more organisations for breaching the Data Protection Act in the coming months, and hinted that the public sector will again bear the brunt of these penalties.

"There is a backlog [of fines] and there are more coming though, but I'm not sure that it hugely changes the pattern of a significant problem in local government," he said.

"There does appear to have been a change in the seriousness with which [data protection] has been taken in central government that has not flowed through to local government."

Smith also dismissed the notion that the ICO is "reticent" to issue fines, explaining that it is often not possible to go any further than insist on an undertaking from the organisation involved.

The role of the information commissioner is also set to change. Smith explained that the Protection of Freedoms Bill will make the appointment a single seven-year term to remove any concerns that the commissioner is "beholden" to those in power.