Private eye fined for using civil servant to obtain data

A private investigator who used a mole in the Department of Social Protection to mine their computer system for personal information on others has been fined €4,000.

James Cowley, aged 65, of Brookdale Lawns, Rivervalley, Swords, Dublin, pleaded guilty to 13 charges under Section 22 of the Data Protection Act for unlawfully obtaining access to personal data and disclosing it to third parties without authorisation of the department.

Permanent TSB had hired him to trace people, while insurance firms including Zurich, Alliance, and the State Claims Agency used his services to carry out surveillance on possible bogus claimants.

The court heard he had been in the British army before working with a security firm and then set up his private investigation business, which he ran for 31 years.

Convicting and fining him Judge John O’Neill said: “Privacy is a huge topic nowadays and invasion of privacy is serious.”

The case followed a probe by the office of the Data Protection Commissioner which prosecuted him and summonsed him to appear before Dublin District Court on 61 counts. Prosecuting solicitor Clare McQuillan said 48 charges were being withdrawn and it was indicated Cowley would plead guilty to the remaining 13 counts.

Assistant data protection commissioner Tony Delaney told the court that last year he got a data breach notification from Permanent TSB after they inadvertently sent two PPS numbers to private investigators one of whom was Cowley.

He asked Permanent TSB to send him copies of trace reports, dating back to 2012, which Cowley had prepared. He said that initially he got reports on six people. He checked with the Department of Social Protection to see if anyone had accessed the people’s data during the time Cowley was carrying out his investigation. All six had their data accessed by one person, named in court as Susan Lillis, an official in the Department of Social Protection. Mr Delaney went back to Permanent TSB to get a wider sample, 27 people. Four of them had their private details accessed by the same individual .

Mr Delaney wrote to the private investigator and carried out an inspection at his office last October.

Lisa Daly, defending, said that Cowley had no prior criminal convictions and the guilty plea was useful in that it had not necessitated having to bring witnesses. He had also paid €1,000 in the prosecution’s legal costs.

Mr Delaney agreed the defendant had also used lawful surveillance methods and was not solely relying on his civil service contact.

Judge O’Neill imposed four €1,000 fines, which must be paid within four months.