Data Protection Act breach

[Semper fidelis]

Hi,
My partner and I were victims of antisocial behaviour on a private estate. The matter went to court first magistrates then an appeal at Crown court. The defendant was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment and harassment given community service and has an indefinite restraining order against him. During the trial we discovered that the managing agents had disclosed sensitive and private information to the defence. The illegally obtained data was obtained by the defendants guardian in a "SAR". The matter went to the ICO who found that information was passed to a third party in breach of the DPA. The managing agents of our site and the freeholders have done everything possible not to give us full disclosure of the information we believe to have been deliberately leaked. We requested a Subject Access Request which was late and incomplete. The freeholder company is refusing to give us all of our data and claiming that they have given all that we are entitled to under the DPA 1998. We contacted the defence law firm making them aware that they had illegally obtained documents and they claim to have written to the police on the matter (the Police have no record of this communication) the defence law firm did, however, write to the CPS, the CPS advice to us was to obtain legal advice.
The freeholders have given a small amount of unsubstantial information unrelated to the leaked information discovered in court. Therefore, it can only be assumed that the remaining information must have been stolen from the office and illegally passed to the defence. The freeholders have now given provably false statements via their lawyers and it would appear that we are the victims of fraud. Is there any advice anybody can give us other than to take the matter to the police and issue legal proceedings?
Any comments welcomed.
Thanks in advance.

[BettercallSaul]

Re: Data Protection Act breach

Did the ICO prosecute the managing agents and/or freeholders for the breach of data and/or are they still investigating the case? I know the CAB can usually arrange a free half hour appointment with a solicitor or you may qualify for Legal Aid through the CLA https://www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice if you feel there is a discriminatory thread to their actions or some police websites have a general enquiry service that may advise you as to whether your complaint would qualify as criminal.

[Semper fidelis]

Re: Data Protection Act breach

Hi BetterCallSaul,
Thank you for your message. The ICO confirmed that there was a breach (private data was passed to a third party) but to our knowledge did nothing more. The managing agents and freeholders deliberately misled the ICO, claiming that only names were not redacted from documents which was clearly untrue. For our own SAR (which was clearly late and incomplete) the freeholders used a law firm who despite being given clear evidence which was also provided to the ICO have again misled the ICO by claiming that they have given all that we are entitled to under the DPA. The evidence given to the ICO by our selves consists of the Chair and other directors emails to us which clearly contradicts what they have claimed to have given ourselves and the ICO. Therefore, one can only assume that they are accusing us of providing false documentation. We are looking at pursuing both the freeholders and the law firm for deception and the matter will be also passed to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The managing agents who are regulated by the FCA and RICS have also misled in conjunction with the freeholder the ICO and ourselves in this matter which we will also have to address. Your comment regarding discrimination is noted and welcomed and we will look into this further. The law firm representing the defence and the defence are also being perused but we cannot discuss this further. In short it would appear that the DPA has become a charter for the unscrupulous, this will now be put to the Commissioner and MP/Minister. Thank you for your comments. Regards.