Phone firm's whistleblower says his life has been made a misery

A whistleblower who lifted the lid on serious security failings by a mobile phone operator has said he regretted coming forward.

Gary Quinn, 43, lost his job and was hounded out of his home by thugs after he exposed mismanagement at Orange.

The firm has been found guilty by the Information Commissioner of breaching the Data Protection Act.

Mr Quinn's troubles began when he told police last November that call centre staff were allowed free access to customer records and bank details - putting Orange's 14.5million UK customers at risk of identity fraud.

Employees were sharing passwords and login details among themselves, meaning there was no way to trace who was accessing private information.

Mr Quinn said: "The security of this call centre was terrible. Dozens of staff spent weeks logged into the computer systems under false IDs.

"If any of these people committed a fraud while logged in under false IDs, their criminal activities would be completely untraceable."

Mr Quinn, from North Tyneside, will not be celebrating the Commissioner's ruling. He said: "I lost my job because I went to the police.

"I became a target for abuse from the local chavs. They had me down as some sort of grass and so decided to make my life a misery.

"If I was in the same position again I would never had said anything."

Meanwhile, the only punishment for Orange is a requirement for it to sign an undertaking to abide by the Data Protection Act in future.