Two married police constables were involved in a £363,000 scam to sell the details of car crash victims to claims firms.
Lancashire Police officers Nigel and Nicola Mungur’s scheme was so slick that one driver was phoned by ambulance chasers before the police had even arrived at the scene of his crash.
Nigel Mungur was today jailed for five years for misconduct in public office and his wife was given a conditional discharge for obtaining personal data.
Chester Crown Court heard that Nigel Mungur accessed the personal data of individuals involved in traffic accident nearly 22,000 times over seven years.
Nigel and Nicola Mungur, former Lancashire Police officers, were involved in a scam in which crash victims details were sold to claims firms
The firms who bought the data would use it to cold call people who had been in accidents and offer to help them get them compensation.
An investigation was launched in 2014 after people complained they were getting calls from law firms when they had not given their details to anyone other than the police.
It emerged Mungur had set up a firm called the Personal Injury Company and used it to sell the stolen police data to claims companies.
Mungur would upload up to 960 screen shots of confidential information from the police computer at a time to a virtual storage site and share a link to the images with John Helton, a contractor for a claims firm.
The information included the time, date and place of collisions and the personal details of people reporting incidents to the police.
Mungur sent text messages to his wife referring to payments received and how much money they would make in the coming year. In one message he complained that he is the one ‘taking all of the risks’.
In one case, a driver was contacted by a claims firm before the police had even arrived
When his company’s licence was revoked in early 2009, Mungur applied to set up another, paying the registration fee with a cheque signed by his wife to avoid the application being rejected.
At an earlier hearing Nigel Mungur pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and conspiracy to convert criminal property.
Nicola Mungur pleaded guilty to obtaining personal data and Helton admitted conspiracy to convert criminal property and conspiracy to commit unauthorised access to a computer.
Helton was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Richard Riley said after the sentencing: ‘Nigel Mungur’s greed led him to take the leading role in stealing confidential information held on a police database and sell it for profit.
‘Nicola Mungur was clearly aware of her husband’s crimes and encouraged, connived and acquiesced in them by turning a blind eye and the pair reaped the financial rewards.
‘The public expect a high standard of behaviour from the police but the Mungurs’ conduct fell short of their duty and now they are paying the price.’