Blackmail plot ends with guilty verdict

A plot to blackmail a City businessman by accusing him of corruption has ended with one man behind bars and a second man awaiting sentencing.

An Old Bailey jury found former private investigator Anthony Currie guilty after hearing he had used stolen phone records to accuse a businessman of corruption, before demanding £45,000 to destroy the evidence.

But the allegation was entirely false, and no money was handed over.

The City of London Police investigation used detailed analysis of phone records to link Currie with an accomplice, Alan Wigzell-Jones. Detectives identified a third man, telecoms employee Kris Cajiao, who sold the phone data to the pair.

Currie, 59, of South Shields, was found guilty of blackmail, and was jailed for two years and nine months. Wigzell-Jones, 48, of Essex, pleaded guilty to the same offence at an earlier hearing and will be sentenced in February. Cajiao, 25, of South Shields, pleaded guilty to offences of computer hacking and to contraventions of the Data Protection Act.

City of London Police DC Jonathan Sanders said: "The misuse of personal data is not only illegal, but so often prompts a more serious crime. That is exactly what happened here, with the stolen telephone records prompting a blackmail allegation that caused the victim a great deal of upset.

“The sentence handed down to Currie reflects both the distress he caused and the seriousness with which crimes such as this are being treated by the courts.

“Mention should also be made of colleagues in the telecommunications industry and in Northumbria Police, who helped progress what was a complex investigation.”