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Protecting criminals. UK Serious Organised Crime Agency SOCA a branch of Organised Crime?

2,712 views · Published 20 July 2013 · 6:07 · Indexed 27 October 2026

Channel: Public Enquiry · 2013 · News & Politics

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Exclusive: New blue-chip dirty tricks scandal revealed after 12 years of silence 
Unpublished official report shows industrial-scale 'blagging' on behalf of insurance, financial services and legal companies
 Ian Burrell    Media Editor  - Independent -  Saturday 20 July 2013  
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-new-bluechip-dirty-tricks-scandal-revealed-after-12-years-of-silence-8721325.html

The vast scale on which private investigation agencies have been used by the financial services sector to illegally raid institutions for personal data on members of the public can be revealed today by The Independent. British law enforcement and other government agencies have known for more than 12 years that sophisticated "blagging" tactics have been deployed by investigators commissioned by insurance firms, finance companies and solicitors.

They used the techniques to illicitly obtain private information by raiding official sources including the National Health Service, Customs & Excise, Social Security, Royal Mail, high street banks, utility companies, credit card firms and councils.

This newspaper has obtained a copy of a handbook, used by the blaggers, that helped to build up an entire illicit sector in the commercial raiding of government departments.

The manual has been in the possession of the authorities since 2001. It formed part of a wider "Baird Project" report compiled by The Information Commissioner's Office, Benefits Agency (now part of the Department for Work & Pensions) and Inland Revenue on the growing threat to private data from illegal methods used by teams of tracing agents.

The report, which has also been seen by The Independent, identified "hundreds of thousands" of bogus calls made by tracers on behalf of banks, insurance firms and solicitors.

Its contents will raise fresh concerns that -- while the press is now being held to account for phone hacking -- the finance and legal sectors have escaped close scrutiny of their own criminal use of investigators.

The revelations come a day after this paper revealed that the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) is refusing to identify the blue-chip companies that commissioned corrupt investigators to break the law. Soca is resisting demands from the Home Affairs Select Committee for the names to be made public, on the grounds that to do so might "undermine the financial viability of major organisations".

Keith Vaz MP, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "This is extraordinary that there's so much detail in this [blagging] document that will allow individuals to extract so much private information. What is required now is that there should be full transparency into what these private investigators have been doing.

"We need to make sure Soca and the Metropolitan Police should be able to follow the evidence wherever it leads... to uncover the truth about what has been happening. More importantly, I think it's necessary that those who have deliberately or unwittingly sought information about individuals or organisations should come clean and tell us precisely why they sought information and what they have done with it."

It said the purpose of its publication of What Price Privacy? in 2006 had been to "bring the problem to the attention of government" and to "highlight the limitations of the law in relation to the offence".

Blagging and hacking: A dirty tricks glossary

In the past four weeks, The Independent has exposed how private investigators and tracing companies have carried out dubious activities on behalf of blue-chip clients. The main offences are blagging and hacking.

Blagging

An offence punishable under section 55 of the Data Protection Act, which carries a maximum fine of £5,000 but penalties are often as little as £100. The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, has described the punishment as "no deterrent". He has called for such offences to be dealt with under sections 77 and 78 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which would allow the courts to impose a custodial sentence.

Hacking

This is dealt with under section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 for unlawful telephone interception. It carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Computer hacking is punished under the Misuse of Computers Act 1990 and carries a penalty of up to six months in jail or a maximum fine of £5,000.

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