Morrisons employee Andrew Skelton 'bore grudge' against supermarket

A senior Morrisons employee posted sensitive and personal staff data on the internet and sent it to newspapers due to a "grudge", a court has heard.

Andrew Skelton, 43, leaked details of nearly 100,000 supermarket staff after he was warned against using the mail room to send out private parcels.

The data breach at the company's Bradford head office cost the firm more than £2m to rectify, the court heard.

He denies three charges including fraud at Bradford Crown Court.

Information including salaries, National Insurance numbers, dates of birth and bank account details were sent to The Guardian, Trinity Mirror Newspapers and the Bradford Telegraph & Argus last year, the jury heard.

It was also uploaded to data sharing websites.

Mr Skelton, of Water Street, Liverpool, was a senior internal auditor at Morrisons at the time.

He was disciplined in 2013 after a package was found in the HQ mail room, which was initially suspected of containing controlled drugs but this was found not to be the case, prosecutor Katherine Robinson said.

'Little concern'

Mr Skelton told an internal investigator he had been conducting eBay deals using the HQ mail room and was given a warning, the court heard.

"He was allowed to continue with his employment," Miss Robinson said.

"The prosecution case is that as a result of that disciplinary matter the defendant bore a grudge against Morrisons .... which led to his offending in this case."

A police investigation into the data breach led to detectives discovering a draft resignation letter that Mr Skelton had written around the time of the disciplinary matter.

Quoting from the letter, Ms Robinson said: "I have almost as little concern for the company as it does for me."

Mr Skelton denies one count of fraud by abuse of position, one of unauthorised access to data with the intent of committing an offence and one of disclosing personal data.

The trial continues.