ECONOMIST passed confidential information to new workplace
ECONOMIST passed confidential information to new workplace
AN ECONOMIST who hacked into the computer system of his former employer, Access Economics, to pass confidential information to his new workplace has been spared time behind bars. Jeremy Thomas Rothfield accessed 18 email accounts of Access Economics employees on more than 800 occasions over a five-month span, passing on information to ACIL Tasman, a rival firm. Rothfield was also in possession of many confidential tenders for economic consulting work and minutes of Access Economics board meetings. The County Court heard Rothfield left Access Economics on unsavoury terms after feeling marginalised and dissatisfied with his treatment, and joined ACIL Tasman. Judge Liz Gaynor said Rothfield "plundered and pillaged" Access Economics, where he once worked as a senior economist. She said the charges, which each carry a maximum of two years' jail, were deserving of a jail term, but Rothfield had never received any financial gain from his activities and there was no evidence to suggest the crimes resulted in a loss of work for Access Economics. It was a "quite extraordinary scenario" where Rothfield had provided potentially lucrative information to a new employer without seeking any real financial return, Judge Gaynor said. No claim for compensation was made by Access Economics, but there was a confidential agreement between the rivals, Judge Gaynor said. Rothfield, 35, of Noble Park, pleaded guilty late last year to 18 charges of hacking into the email accounts of Access Economics employees from November 2002 until March 2003. Judge Gaynor ordered Rothfield to pay $2000 if he breached the suspended sentence in the next two years, but said: "I would be most surprised to see you before a court again."
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