urth largest supermarket chain, has revealed that one of its employees has been arrested in connection with a major theft of data from its staff payroll system.West Yorkshire police said a man had been arrested in Leeds early yesterday morning on suspicion of making or supplying an article for the use of fraud. He is currently being held in custody.
Those convicted of such an offence, under section 7 of the Fraud Act 2006, can face up to 10 years in prison in the most serious cases.
The supermarket said it became aware of the data theft last Thursday, hours after it announced financial results. The data, thought to include the bank account details, names and address of up to 100,000 staff, was offered on a disk to a newspaper and published on a website.
Morrisons said the data theft affected staff from all levels of the organisation including the board, but would not comment on whether CEO Dalton Philips was among them.
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Hooks of Protective Services (Crime) confirmed: “An employee of Morrisons has been arrested in Leeds this morning in connection with an investigation into the theft of data from the company. He is currently in custody.”
