Police force denies ‘copying’ phone data from software company

Staff at Forensic Telecommunications Services (FTS) became “suspicious” about West Yorkshire Police after a manager discussed a terrorist investigation with a detective, a judge was told.

In written submissions to Mr Justice Arnold, lawyers for the Kent-based firm said that in spring 2006 company bosses became aware that West Yorkshire Police had tried and failed to develop software with the “same functionality” as FTS software.

By the summer of that year the force had developed an application “for the extraction, analysis and presentation of data from mobile telephones”, lawyers added.

They said there were “striking similarities” between the police programme and the FTS software which could not “be explained by mere coincidence”.

The force denies infringing copyright. A lawyer representing police told the judge that senior officers disputed that there had been “extraction or utilisation”.

FTS specialist telecoms adviser manager Trevor Fordy told the court that he became suspicious after a discussion, in late May or early June 2006, with a West Yorkshire detective involved in a “terrorist investigation”.

Mr Fordy said he was told that the force’s “high tech unit” had extracted information from a number of mobile phones.

He said he “could not understand” how police had “got exactly the same” results as FTS.

Mr Fordy, a former detective superintendent with Northumbria Police who said his job at FTS was to act as a “conduit” between “techies and police”, said he raised his concerns with a senior West Yorkshire officer during a meeting in an Asda car park in Pudsey.

He said he thought that the phones must have either been analysed by “the security services” or “the high tech unit had access to FTS”.

Jonathan Hill, for West Yorkshire Police, said similarities could arise as a result of “independent creation”.

“The evidence doesn’t allow you to reach the conclusion that there has been copying,” he told the judge.

“It is plain that what my clients have been doing is research into the field of mobile phone forensics and they have not been doing it for any commercial purpose.”

Mr Fordy said FTS had done a “lot of work” for West Yorkshire Police.

FTS lawyers said in court papers that “tables” were contained in manuals provided with computer software.

They claimed that West Yorkshire Police had “without licence” copied a “substantial part” of the tables and infringed copyright.

The hearing is expected to end this week.