Sacked accountant 'raided' information Oct 21 2003
Guy Newey, Birmingham Post
A disgruntled accountant who illegally accessed banking information worth a total of £6.3 million was ordered to pay £15,000 at Birmingham Magistrates' Court yesterday.
Abdullah Dervish (60) from Bearwood Road, Warley, Birmingham, admitted ten infringements of the Data Protection Act, and admitted another 165 similar offences.
Dervish, who has been a personal tax accountant in Bearwood for 22 years, was an agent for Bradford & Bingley and involved in encouraging his clients to take accounts with the building society.
As part of his work he had access to the company's computers and after they sacked him at the end of 2000 he began downloading details of individual accounts, including their balances and addresses.
He then used the details to send letters from the Yorkshire Bank - for whom he had begun working as an agent - and put the B&B accounts on notice to close.
Dervish, a member of the Institute of Financial Accountants, targeted the largest balances, including one with a balance of £70,000.
Some accounts belonged to elderly women who were shaken by the sudden appearance of a notice of closure letter.
As a result of his actions 78 clients transferred accounts worth a total of £2.4 million, although many of these were Dervish's personal accounting clients.
Prosecutor Bernard Thorogood said: "When he was handed the notice he was clearly annoyed. He said he would not allow his agency to be transferred to someone else."
Dervish, who had worked as a B&B agent for 16 years, then ordered his assistant, who the court heard was in no way guilty of any crime, to download personal details of individual accounts.
The accounts were put on notice to close, which would mean the account holders would receive letters telling them their accounts were being terminated.
Dervish would then use the addresses he had obtained to invite people to transfer their banking to the Yorkshire Bank.
Magistrates's Chair Nancy Littler fined Dervish £1,000 for each of the charges and ordered him to pay costs of £5,000.
A spokesman for the Commission of Information said it was pleased to see the courts recognise the seriousness of the offence.
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