Eight men have been found guilty of stealing personal details of around a million drivers from repairers.
The details were accessed and obtained without consent and then sold to claims management firms who then used it to generate potential leads for personal injury claims.
The men were found guilty following a 10-week trial at Bolton Crown Court and will return to court on 11 July when Proceeds of Crime Act and cost issues will be discussed, with sentencing following at a later date.
The case followed an extensive investigation by the ICO, which was launched in 2016 after a repairer in County Durham contacted the regulator because they believed customers blamed them for the personal injury claims nuisance calls they were receiving.
The investigation quickly snowballed into one of the largest nuisance call cases in the ICO’s history.
ICO head of investigations Andy Curry, said: “Most of us have had nuisance calls asking if we’ve been in a crash. At best they’re annoying but at worst they cause real upset and fear, especially to vulnerable people, and have a real impact on the businesses affected.
“This case uncovered a vast, murky criminal network where crash details were stolen from garages across England, Scotland and Wales and traded to fuel distressing predatory calls.
“This has been an enormous and complex case which has seen ICO staff use both technical expertise and investigative skills to work tirelessly to track down those responsible and hold them accountable on behalf of the public.”
The investigation has now moved on to its second phase, with further prosecutions expected of people embedded into insurance companies and claims management companies with the sole aim of stealing personal data.
