Help - Breach of confidentiality?

SaigonBlaze

Hello,

Long story short, I'm worried that I will potentially soon be in a dispute with someone I live with over energy bill payments. I have made sure that everything is above board but nonetheless I'm quite concerned about the way things might go.

The account is in my name only. My flatmate tried to access my account information and was given "some" information by the energy supplier (I don't know how much) who admitted they shouldn't have been giving my flatmate any details.

Given the relative lack of information, I'm not sure if anyone can help but I'd like to know if anyone has broken the law here? It's clearly dishonest (my flatmate accessed the account without telling me) but I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about it (apart from complain to the energy provider).

Thanks,

DragonQ

Why were they accessing your account? Do they not trust what you are claiming the bills are or something?

I paid for all bills in a 5-person house whilst at university (for sake of ease) and I'll never do that again - one person still owes me £200 years later.

SaigonBlaze

DragonQ wrote: »

Why were they accessing your account? Do they not trust what you are claiming the bills are or something?

This is basically what I'm kinda worried about.

I hope it will turn out to be nothing because I have all the payments (direct debit, statements etc) showing it's all above board and was managed properly but I'm just a bit nervous because of the way it's being asked for (too much detail to go into here).

Yeah, this'll be why I'll never live with strangers again, and why from now on all bills will be in everyone's name (I'm a really trusting person, I guess it can screw me over from time to time!)

chanz4

Person at the company sacked and criminal investigation, if thats what you want? However depends on if your friend gave your details in which case the suppliers off the hook

DragonQ

SaigonBlaze wrote: »

Yeah, this'll be why I'll never live with strangers again, and why from now on all bills will be in everyone's name (I'm a really trusting person, I guess it can screw me over from time to time!)

I do pay all the bills in my current house-share (mainly to get a credit rating since I've had problems even getting a mobile contract in the past) but there's fewer of us and we're all friends (rather than just being acquaintances) and I don't pay the rent directly, which gives me an insurance policy. If anything happens and they don't pay me the bills, I just take it off what I owe them for the rent.

undaunted

You could complain to the co. involved and if necessary the information commissioners re a breach of the data protection act.

I doubt anyone is going to be sacked or launch a criminal investigation over it - unless you should suffer some loss or have evidence of some kind of fraud by your flatmate of course - though presumably the flatmate gave some kind of detail about you and said / implied they were you to obtain this information?

chanz4

undaunted wrote: »

You could complain to the co. involved and if necessary the information commissioners re a breach of the data protection act.

I doubt anyone is going to be sacked or launch a criminal investigation over it - unless you should suffer some loss or have evidence of some kind of fraud by your flatmate of course - though presumably the flatmate gave some kind of detail about you and said / implied they were you to obtain this information?

data protection breach is a criminal offence