A former Morrisons senior auditor has been jailed for eight years after posting sensitive data relating to 100,000 staff on the internet.
Andrew Skelton, 43, leaked the documents in an act of revenge after the business accused him of sending packages containing legal highs from its post room, prosecutors said.
Skelton was charged with fraud last November but denied all three counts. He tried to cover his tracks by using a colleague’s details to set up a fake email account, Bradford Crown Court heard.
But he was convicted after jurors heard how he had abused his position at the retailer’s head office in Bradford.
Skelton sent personal information including staff salaries, bank details and National Insurance numbers to several newspapers and posted it on data sharing websites.
Cost to Morrisons
The data breach cost Morrisons more than £2m to rectify, the court heard.
David Holderness, reviewing lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service’s Complex Casework Unit, said: “Andrew Skelton’s motive appears to have been a personal grievance over a previous incident where he was accused of dealing in legal highs at work.
“The potential loss to his victims and the sheer quantity of potentially compromised data was very significant and could have resulted in employees’ identities being stolen.
“The sentence imposed today sends out a very clear message that we will robustly prosecute serious fraudsters such as Skelton who believe they are above the law.”
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