Geoffrey Smith

What happened

A council worker who unlawfully accessed hundreds of personal records has been handed a suspended sentence.

Geoffrey Smith, 31, from Ledbury, Herefordshire, was a new employee at Herefordshire Council working in the Children and Young People directorate. His unlawful conduct was discovered after concerns were raised within the council about potential unauthorised access to a referral case, prompting an investigation into other records he had accessed.

That investigation revealed that, over a four-day period, Smith unlawfully accessed approximately 490 records and downloaded 94 documents. The records related to his family members and families known to him and included children and adults. The records accessed involved highly sensitive material such as medical records, social worker reports and child and family assessments.

On 27 May 2026, Smith pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, relating to the unlawful accessing of personal data held on computers. Smith was sentenced at Worcester Magistrates' Court following a hearing on Friday 17 July to two months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, 120 hours unpaid work, £2000 costs plus a victim surcharge of £154.

Summarised from the notice published by the ICO on 17 July 2026. Read the original notice — it is the authoritative version.