Tayside Police worker leaked secret data Published duration 2 March 2012

image caption Heather Fairfield leaked the police data for a nine-year period

A police worker illegally accessed hundreds of confidential police records - then passed the information on to a relative, a court has heard.

Heather Fairfield looked at 653 private records, stored on secure computer systems, over a nine-year period.

The data was then given to Dale Fairfield - understood to be her son - and other people.

Fairfield, 48, admitted the offences, which took place at Downfield Police Station in Dundee.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that the records, accessed between 19 June 2001 and 24 June 2010, related to 61 different people.

Fairfield, from Dundee, pleaded guilty to breaching the Data Protection Act. But George Donnelly, defending, said the case was a "complicated matter".

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis continued the case until later this month for social background reports.

It is understood Fairfield was suspended from her role at Tayside Police as soon as the allegations came to light.

A spokeswoman for the force said: "Tayside Police acknowledges the plea in the case at Dundee Sheriff Court today.