British Gas employee found guilty after stealing £45k of customer data
08/08/2025 | LeicestershireLive
A former British Gas employee, Chintan Paida, has pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining and selling customer data worth approximately £45,000. Paida, 37, admitted to two offences: obtaining personal data without consent, a violation of the Data Protection Act 2018, and theft by an employee, under the Theft Act 1968. The prosecutor stated that Paida stole the data and sold it on to brokers.
Paida appeared at Leicester Magistrates' Court but was transferred to Leicester Crown Court for sentencing as the case was deemed too serious and a sentence longer than 12 months can be imposed.
Commenting on the article on LinkedIn, data protection specialist Jon Baines noted the unusual use of the Theft Act to prosecute a data protection case, as personal data is information, not property, but agreed with the principle that if actual files were taken, then it could apply.
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