A private investigator who defrauded corporate clients by stealing confidential information and selling it faces a year in jail.

Daniel Summers, 32, from New Malden, used a technique known as blagging to deceive company clients and individuals.

He bypassed security measures through persuasion and impersonation, targeting banks, financial institutions, mortgage providers, government agencies and law enforcement databases.

Summers was at the centre of an operation involving three other private detectives who sold on the information to clients including insurance companies, foreign exchange brokers and solicitors.

He was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Monday, February 27, alongside Philip Campbell Smith, 53, Adam Spears, 72, and Graham Freeman, 51, who all used his services.

Smith, from Old Stratford, is also under investigation for allegedly hacking computers to obtain information for the News of the World.

He faces allegations that he hacked the emails of Ian Hurst, a former Army intelligence officer.

The four men were caught after an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), who found quotes for Summers’s services.

Summers, who used a Teddington property as a base, unknowingly sold his computer to an undercover Soca officer after intelligence suggested it held information about criminal activity.

Despite his attempts to erase the hard drive, forensic analysts retrieved files showing Smith, Spears and Freeman asking Summers to obtain confidential information in exchange for payment.

Evidence also showed the four men warning each other when their activity risked being noticed.

The four men, who all pleaded guilty, carried out the offences in England and Wales between January 2007 and May 2009.

Spears, from Westerham, Kent, and Smith were given eight-month jail sentences.

Smith also received four months to be served concurrently for possessing a small amount of ammunition.

Freeman, from Spain, was given six-months in custody.

Soca will now hand over information that may be relevant to other authorities to determine if further action is appropriate.