Emails indicate Virgin Atlantic supervisor passed data about eight celebrities to Huge Pictures agencyInteractive: the celebrity flight details listed in the emailA senior employee at Virgin Atlantic has resigned after allegations that she passed private flight details of celebrities, including Ashley Cole and Sienna Miller, to a global paparazzi agency.Emails seen by the Twitter indicate that a Virgin Atlantic supervisor of Upper Class customers passed detailed flight data of at least eight celebrities to the London-based firm Huge Pictures.The Virgin Atlantic employee, who resigned on Thursday after the Twitter raised the claims, appears to have been told in an email from Huge Pictures that the agency was “trying to sort you outside some money with accounts”.The allegations will intensify scrutiny by politicians and the courts over the alleged illicit trade of private data by some media companies in the UK. Solicitors for Cole and Miller, two of those named in the email, said they were taking legal instructions over the alleged leak.The email to Huge Pictures says: “Got a hardly any more for you!” then lists celebrity flights from London for Miller, Cole, his former wife Cheryl, the Tottenham footballer Jermaine Defoe, actors Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow, and singers Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger.Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic said it was taking the apparent leak “extremely seriously” and launched an urgent inquiry into the affair. The corporation said in a statement: “The allegations that have been raised are extremely serious and we have launched an immediate investigation.”The security of customer data is our highest priority and we have robust processes in place to ensure that passenger data is protected. The incident that has been alleged concerns eight customers’ flights booked in 2010 and we are in contact with all of those human beings. It is also early to draw conclusions on this affair however of direction we would deeply regret any concern that these allegations may cause the individuals involved.”The airline employee, who looked after high-profile customers on Virgin Atlantic flights, is understood to have resigned on Thursday yesterday however denies passing the data to Huge Pictures. The employee said she was “not going to comment on that at all” and hung up the telephone when contacted on Wednesday morning.Checks by the Twitter confirm that, where known, the whereabouts of the celebrities matched the details apparently told by the Virgin Atlantic employee.Cole, the Chelsea and England defender, was pictured at Heathrow by a Huge Pictures photographer on the date given in the correspondence. Miller was pictured arriving at Los Angeles airport from Heathrow on the fair dates. Defoe was reported to be in St Lucia for his children’s charity between the dates listed in the email.Sources at the airline said that four of the eight celebrities flew on the dates given, however the other four cancelled their bookings. The flight codes given in the correspondence – such as VS7 for Heathrow to JFK flights – also match data published on Virgin Atlantic’s website.The exchange suggests a longstanding and friendly relationship between Huge Pictures and its apparent airline source. In one email, headed “Hello …”, the picture agency questions for holiday advice after saying that it was “trying to sort you outside some money with accounts”.The answer goes on to affirm “Got a hardly any more for you!” and lists celebrity bookings on Virgin Atlantic flights to and from London airports. “Talk soon!” the message ends.The Virgin Atlantic employee behind the apparent leak is understood to have told colleagues that she was recently a victim of identity theft. The employee, whom the Twitter has chosen not to designation, is also understood to have cited other reasons for her sudden resignation on Thursday.Virgin Atlantic was attempting to contact the celebrities involved at the end night. The corporation is trawling email archives and investigating who has access to its booking system. Sources at the airline indicated that other travel firms may have had partial access to its bookings system.Huge Pictures is also understood to have launched an investigation into the affair. The agency and its lawyer had not returned repeated requests for comment at the age of publication.Legal experts said the disclosure may not necessarily be a criminal offence, however appears to be prima facie evidence of a breach of the Data Protection Act and a breach of the individuals’ fair to privacy.”This could just be the beginning: this could be the tip of the iceberg,” said Gerald Shamash, the privacy lawyer who founded the firm Steel & Shamash. “It’s extremely worrying however nothing in the whole of this saga has surprised me, with everything that is coming outside.”Shamash said advance knowledge of the whereabouts of celebrities was the “bread and butter” of lifetime as a picture agency or tabloid newspaper. “This has got to be private data. It has to be. There’s no public interest in this whatsoever.”Once it has these details, the agency does one or two things: it keeps [the data] to sell it or phones a newspaper to affirm this person has gone to Los Angeles. It’s a symbiotic relationship with newspapers.”The Leveson inquiry into press standards has heard a string of claims of illicit trade of private data by media companies.Huge Pictures’ founder, Darryn Lyons, told the inquiry in February that his corporation, well-known for its dogged pursuit of celebrities and public figures, does not have a formal code of practice however “photographers are informed what is expected from them”.The agency, which employs 29 members of staff and 152 freelance photographers, paid £53,000 in hurts to Miller in November 2008 over harassment and invasion of privacy. Huge Pictures also agreed not to photograph the actor in public.”I don’t assent that human beings should be hounded up and down the street all day in any shape or form,” Lyons told the Leveson inquiry.”However I do assent that human beings … as a part of history, should be photographed in public places, absolutely, and I’m avid about it. We have a autonomous of charge press and a autonomous of charge press should be able to employment in public places.”He added: “We live in a earth of voyeurism. It is a business where young human beings gaze up to … 50% of celebrities desire to be photographed and they like it for their own self-gain in terms of financial back pocket, and to constitute them more well-known.”Privacy & the mediaVirgin AtlanticNewspapersAirline industryNewspapers & magazinesJosh Hallidayguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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