Man Held Over Morrisons Payroll Data Breach

An employee of supermarket chain Morrisons has been arrested by police investigating the theft of payroll data of up to 100,000 employees.

West Yorkshire Police said a man was arrested on Monday on suspicion of making or supplying an article for use in fraud.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Hooks said: "An employee of Morrisons has been arrested in Leeds this morning in connection with an investigation into the theft of data from the company.

"He is currently in custody."

The information was published online and a disk of data was sent to a regional newspaper, the Bradford-based group said last week.

The company said the information was later taken offline and no customers were affected.

It said the data breach was discovered on Thursday and was believed to include bank accounts, names and addresses.

In an email to managers the company warned that the breach potentially affected "colleagues from all levels of the organisation".

On Friday, Morrisons released a statement and said: "Initial investigations suggest that this theft was not the result of an external penetration of our systems.

"We can confirm there has been no loss of customer data and no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged."

It came as the chain, which has struggled amid strong challenges from discounters and because of its slow response to the online grocery and convenience markets, confirmed a pre-tax loss of £176m for 2013/14.

It made a profit of £879m in the previous 12 months.