Council officer fined for passing rival CVs to job-hunting partner

A former senior council officer has been fined for passing the personal information of rival job applicants to his partner.

Kevin Bunsell

Kevin Bunsell admitted breaching the Data Protection Act when he appeared at Nuneaton Magistrates’ Court.

He was employed by Nuneaton and Bedworth District Council in Warwickshire as its head of building control.

In July 2017, his partner applied for an administrative job at the council and Bunsell was not involved in the selection process because of his personal relationship.

However, he accessed the authority’s recruitment system and emailed the personal information of the nine rival shortlisted candidates to his own work email and to his partner’s personal account.

The recruitment packs he shared included the name, address, telephone number and CV of each candidate, along with contact details for each of their two referees.

Bunsell resigned once the data breach had been discovered. His partner, who had been recruited, also had her employment terminated.

After pleading guilty, he was fined £660, ordered to pay £714 costs and a victim surcharge of £66.

Steve Eckersley, director of investigations at the Information Commissioner’s Office, which brought the prosecution, said: “People who supply their personal information to an organisation in good faith, such as when applying for a job, have a legal right to expect it will be treated lawfully and ethically.

“Not respecting people’s legal right to privacy can have serious consequences, as this case demonstrates.”