Four men jailed for data protection scam

The long arm of the law has caught up with four scammers who have been sentenced to jail this week for sending out fake data protection notices demanding businesses pay up or risk falling foul of the Data Protection Act (DPA).

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentenced the four men to prison terms of between eight months and two and a half years.

The sentences were passed down after one man, Francis Boyd, pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining more than £400,000 between December 2002 and April 2004 using scam notices sent to companies asking for payment to register them under the Data Protection Act.

The four men - Paul Barton, Francis Boyd, Michael Boyd and Mark Deary - obtained more than £200,000 using a similar scam between March 2004 and March 2005.

According to the Information Commissioner's Office, anyone receiving a demand for more than £35 - the statutory fee to register under the DPA - should "throw it in the bin".