Serco employee suspected of Victoria Police breach

Government outsourcer Serco has come under police investigation for unauthorised changes that were made to 67,541 Victorian traffic infringement records from 2010 and 2011.

The changes were believed to have been made by a former Serco employee during a three-week period in February and March, when the employee had access to those records.

Earlier this week, Victoria Police arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly modifying dates, times, and speeds in those speed and red light camera infringement records.

Serco declined to comment yesterday on how the employee had been dealt with, explaining that the matter was the subject of a criminal investigation by Victoria Police.

The British outsourcer told iTnews that it had “systems and processes in place to catch any anomalies, including tampering”, and no infringements had been wrongly issued.

“Serco found the tampering through normal reporting work by our analysts – proving our systems work,” a spokesman said.

Serco was listed on the London stock exchange in 1988 and currently had contracts with detention centres, hospitals, defence and transport agencies worldwide.

The company was criticised in the media last month for “chronic overcrowding” in Christmas Island detention facilities that it had been managing under a five-year, $370 million contract with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.