A senior Met officer has won £5,000 in compensation after the force admitted unlawfully snooping on her mobile phone data.
Chief Inspector Kirsty Andrew discovered investigators had trawled through personal data from two phones while probing claims that she had wrongly claimed wages while not on duty.
The officer, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, sued the Met, arguing her human rights had been breached and she was now suffering from a stress-related disorder.
The Met admitted accessing phone data had been “disproportionate” but fought the claim, arguing Ms Andrew was not due a payout because she had been “vindicated” in the misconduct probe.
But the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled she should receive £5,000 in compensation to mark the “serious” breach of her human rights.
The investigation of Ms Andrew began in May 2015, and the Met was granted power under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to obtain data from her mobile phones.
The officer only learned about the probe in November 2015 when she was interviewed under caution on suspicion of false accounting and gross misconduct. The Met concluded she had “no case to answer”.
The investigation “should not have been treated as a criminal matter” and the force conceded that obtaining the data had been “disproportionate”, the tribunal heard. Ms Andrew said Met bosses had “failed to apologise or offer workplace support”, adding she was forced to go on sick leave and has now moved to a different department.
The tribunal concluded: “This was a serious infringement of her rights, covering a substantial period.”
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