Medical files to phones, personal details stolen on industrial scale The risk is growing as more information is being held by more organisations on a greater number of databases, experts warn. They claim the crime is not being treated seriously enough by the authorities. Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, has been pressing the Government for tougher penalties, including the possibility of prison sentences, for such data thefts. He said: "The risk grows month by month as we all become more dependent on databases, as consumers, as citizens and as organisations trying to find ways of delivering public services in a more efficient way." The Sunday Telegraph, assisted by Big Brother Watch, a privacy campaign group, analysed all prosecutions brought against people for breaching section 55 of the Data Protection Act in the last five years. The legislation makes it an offence to "knowingly or recklessly" obtain or disclose personal information without the permission of the organisation responsible for the data. The Information Commissioner is able to prosecute under the Act, while the Crown Prosecution Service generally carries out such prosecutions when police have also brought charges of another offence considered more serious, such as misconduct in a public office. The analysis disclosed that prosecutors had brought charges for 714 alleged breaches of section 55 in the last five financial years. The CPS is unable to disclose how many resulted in convictions, but the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has separately, successfully sought convictions for an additional 82 offences. In total, 14 people were convicted as a result of ICO prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. The CPS was unable to say how many individuals were involved in its prosecutions. Those prosecuted by the ICO include Darren Hames, a former area manager for T-Mobile, who made thousands of pounds selling details of half a million customers to a former colleague, David Turley. Turley then sold the information on to a company that targeted customers to switch to a rival operator. The extent to which information from some databases has been sold to such firms will heighten concerns about the growth of nuisance calls. The analysis follows an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph earlier this year which showed that British homes are now receiving up to 3.2 billion such calls every year. In another case, names, addresses and phone numbers of 65,000 customers of an online bingo site were sold to third-party organisations by Marc Ben-Ezra, a gambling industry worker. In total Ben-Ezra, from Finchley, north London, made around £25,000 from selling personal details on an "industrial scale," according to the Information Commissioner. He received a three-year conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £1,700 to the specialist marketing company from which the information was obtained. Those prosecuted by the CPS included Sarah Matthew, a Metropolitan Police sergeant who was dismissed after being convicted of illegally accessing information in the force's database. In November 2011 she admitted nine charges under section 55. Further cases are currently facing court. These include charges against Jason Robinson, 41, who was suspended from his job as a detective sergeant at Cumbria Police last year. He faces trial in November along with George Nevins, 61, who has also been charged as part of an investigation by Cumbria Constabulary's professional standards unit. Nick Pickles, the director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Looking at these paltry penalties it is impossible to say that people's personal information is being properly protected by the courts. Serious, highly sensitive information is being abused by people in positions of trust and they walk away with a punishment equivalent to a slightly expensive parking ticket. We have long called for custodial sentences to be introduced to give a real deterrent to those who think about abusing their access to confidential information. As more evidence becomes clear of the widespread abuse of personal information by private investigators and people who are willing to abuse their access to databases there can be no justification for the status quo and these pathetic punishments. Mr Graham added: "We are in the hands of people within organisations who handle our most sensitive personal information. We need to catch up with the real world of 2013. You can have some great edifice of modernisation and efficient delivery and you can have an organisation that really takes its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act seriously, but you have got somebody in the lower levels of the organisation, probably rather badly paid, who sees an opportunity to settle a score, to make a bit of money on the side, or whatever the motivation might be. There's nothing in the current law that says, 'it's really serious, you shouldn't do that. You could go to jail."" A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the Government intended to consult on the proposals to introduce custodial sentences for breaching the Data Protection Act.