A British police officer was sentenced to five years in prison today for selling data about car crashes to insurance claims firms -- in one case even before a police patrol had arrived on the scene of an accident.
The fraud consisted of extracting names and contact details for people involved in car crashes from a police database, prosecutors said in a statement.
The information was then sold to claims firms which then offered various types of compensation.
The police officer, Nigel Mungur, even set up his own company to handle the data transfers and made 363,000 pounds over seven years.
He was found out when car crash victims complained they were receiving calls even though they had given their contact details only to the police.
One man said he had been contacted by an insurance firm even before police had arrived to assist him.
Two accomplices, including Mungur's wife Nicola, also a police officer, were also convicted.
"The public expect a high standard of behaviour from the police but the Mungurs' conduct fell short of their duty and now they are paying the price," prosecutor Richard Riley said in the statement.
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