Friday, August 21, 2009
Police charged two people for Data Protection Act offences in relation to the November 2008 leak of the members list of the far-right British National Party (BNP).
Following a joint investigation between Dyfed-Powys Police and the Information Commissioner’s Office, a 27-year-old man and 30-year-old woman were arrested and charged under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. The pair lived in Nottinghamshire, England at the time of their arrest. They will appear before a Magistrates’ Court on September 1.
The leaked list is available online, and contains personal information of about 10,000 BNP members, including information on their family, work and contact details. Despite a High Court injunction to prevent the list from being published, it is available on numerous websites.
The list revealed the BNP had members who were lawyers, doctors, police officers, teachers and servicemen. Certain professions forbid BNP membership, and the list’s publication resulted in several dismissals.
A spokesman for the BNP praised the police and Crown Prosecution Service for treating it “seriously”, stating that the leak had caused “a lot of distress”.