Policewoman jailed for breaching Data Protection Act
A 27-month jail sentence has been given to the Tayside Constable who passed on sensitive details to her partner.


A Policewoman has been jailed for more than two years for stealing sensitive data and passing it on to a third party.
Karen Howie, a 34-year-old Constable from Carnoustie, Scotland, breached the Data Protection Act (DPA) when she took details of an ongoing investigation from Police computers and passed them onto her partner, Neil Hand.
Hand then used the details to warn a suspect supposedly embroiled in a counterfeiting scam. He admitted to the court in Dundee he had also breached the DPA, whilst Howie confessed to two counts of perverting the course of justice.
Deputy Chief Constable Gordon Scobbie, head of Tayside Police where Howie used to work, told the BBC: "Criminal behaviour of this nature is exceptionally rare and the vast majority of our police officers and police staff act with integrity and honesty day in and day out."
"Our collective dismay at this case is only tempered by our resolve to ensure that we continue to investigate every allegation of wrongdoing and retain public trust and confidence."
Howie had already resigned her post at Kirriemuir Police Station.
Get the ITPro daily newsletter
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.
Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.
-
What is polymorphic malware?
Explainer Polymorphic malware constantly changes its code to avoid detection, making it a top cybersecurity threat that demands advanced, behavior-based defenses
-
Outgoing Kaseya CEO teases "this is just the beginning" for the company
Opinion We spoke to Fred Voccola who remains a key figurehead at the firm as it enters its next chapter...
-
India’s new data protection bill continues to “facilitate state surveillance”
News Although data localisation requirements have now been removed, it’s down to the Indian government to select which countries data is allowed to be sent to
-
UK police fails ethical tests with "unlawful" facial recognition deployments
News A University of Cambridge team audited UK police use of the tech and found frequent ethical and legal shortcomings
-
LinkedIn denies data breach that reportedly exposed 700 million user records
News Report claims 'breach' led to profiles belonging to 92% of LinkedIn users being put up for sale on a popular hacker forum
-
Privacy campaigners rally against "illegal" Clearview AI data scraping
News The notorious facial recognition firm claims to have a database of more than three billion images scraped from social media sites
-
Germany bans Facebook from using WhatsApp data over GDPR concerns
News Hamburg's data protection commissioner issues three-month ban days before the app's new privacy policy rolls out
-
Facebook faces 'mass action' lawsuit over data breach
News Digital Rights Ireland is urging European Facebook users who have been affected to sign up
-
Irish data watchdog to investigate Facebook data leak
News The regulator believes that Facebook may have infringed ‘one or more’ GDPR provisions following apparent leak of 533 million user records
-
EU might force tech giants to share data with smaller rivals
News The Digital Services Act draft also suggests that firms may be banned from giving their own services preferential treatment