Former CPS employee jailed for accessing sensitive case files

Posted to News on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 Share:

A FORMER Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) employee who repeatedly accessed three sensitive case files involving allegations of serious organised crime without authorisation has been jailed. Muhammad Iqbal, aged 27, who previously worked as an administrative officer and paralegal assistant, accessed the three files via the CPS case management system between April 2014 and May 2019.

On multiple occasions after accessing the files, Iqbal was immediately in contact with people connected to the defendants in those cases, which involved serious organised crime.

Iqbal, who was based in Birmingham, was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of misconduct in public office. A download of data on his iPhone revealed photographs of case documents and relevant messages.

It also provided evidence of a perverting the course of justice offence in which Iqbal provided false details of a driver of his brother’s car to the Speed Enforcement Unit at Portisfields in Bristol.

Appearing at Southwark Crown Court, Iqbal was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment for misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice.

Unacceptable conduct

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS, noted: “Iqbal’s conduct was simply unacceptable. He repeatedly viewed sensitive documents that he had no authorisation to access and used his position to help a driver escape prosecution for a road traffic offence.”

Ainslie continued: “He displayed a flagrant disregard towards CPS policies around sensitive information and risked damaging public trust and confidence in the organisation. The CPS expects all members of staff to act with integrity in handling data held in its systems. Iqbal fell well below these standards. It’s only right that he faced criminal prosecution and an appropriate sentence for his actions.”

Organised crime group

DCI Pete Cooke from the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands (which investigated Iqbal) observed: “Within just seven weeks of Iqbal starting work at the CPS, he had been accessing the case files of a relative who was being investigated for a serious wounding. He accessed this case an incredible 593 times without any good reason for doing so.

Cooke added: “Iqbal accessed files for people who went on to be convicted of involvement in a Birmingham-based organised crime group, importing and supplying kilos of heroin. Those involved were handed sentences of between five and 13 years, but Iqbal’s criminal activity had the potential to undermine those prosecutions.”

Cooke concluded: “We will work hard to root out and prosecute corruption wherever it lies within the criminal justice system so that members of the public and victims of crime can have the confidence in the legal system they deserve.”