Background

Mr Matthew McConville, the Head of our specialised Data Breach Department at Irvings Law has successfully represented a client in a data breach compensation claim. The said client wishes herself to be unnamed for the purposes of this case report and as such will be referred to as ‘Mrs W’.

Mrs W was a tenant of Powys County Council. On the 17^th April 2020, Powys County Council wrote to Mrs W to confirm that they had recently committed a data breach which resulted in Mrs W’s personal details being disclosed to another one of their tenants; but not only just Mrs W’s information but other tenants too. This breach resulted in Mrs W’s (and others) name, address, bank sort code and the last four digits of their account numbers being printed on the back of a letter that was sent to the said other tenant. Within this letter that Powys County Council sent to Mrs W, they apologised for this administrative error and for any inconvenience or distress that this incident has caused to Mrs W (and others).

Representation

As Powys County Council had done this, Mrs W sought expert assistance from Mr McConville. Without hesitation, Mr McConville offered to act for Mrs W on a no win, no fee basis and once instructed, Mr McConville lodged a Letter of Claim to Powys County Council. It was abundantly clear to Mr McConville that Powys County Council erroneously disclosed personal information pertaining to Mrs W (and others) to another tenant without consent which they admitted and apologised for doing.

Mr McConville specifically alleged that Powys County Council had not kept Mrs W’s sensitive information safe and secure, they had breached / invaded her privacy under the Human Rights Act, had breached the Data Protection Act 2018/the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as confidence following their misuse of private information pertaining to Mrs W.

Resolution

Following receipt of this Letter of Claim and without admitting liability, Powys County Council offered Mrs W £100.00 to settle her claim. In response and following Mr McConville’s advice, Mrs W rejected the same and informed Powys County Council that she will now be commencing formal legal proceedings. Before finalising the same, Powys County Council instructed Solicitors to represent them whom then admitted liability and increased their offer of settlement to £750.00.

Due to financial troubles and against Mr McConville’s advice, Mrs W instructed Mr McConville to accept this increased offer of settlement. Upon receipt of these instructions, Mr McConville telephoned Powys County Council’s Solicitors and convinced them to double their offer of settlement to £1,500.00 which they did without hesitation.

If you have been effected by this breach, please contact Mr McConville.