A PERSONAL injury clerk has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 after he admitted getting confidential patient details from his girlfriend.

Martin Campbell persuaded his former partner Dawn Makin to hand over details of 29 patients from the walk-in centres where she worked as a nurse, Bury magistrates heard.

Campbell used the patients’ contact details to generate extra work for the personal injury claims company where he worked, Direct Assist in Bury.

Ms Makin tried to kill herself at her home in Lea Mount Drive, Bury, in February, by slashing her wrists and drinking a toxic fluid. The 33-year-old was found unconscious next to the body of her four-year-old daughter, Chloe Burke, who had been stabbed to death.

Police launched a murder investigation but are not looking for anyone else.

Ms Makin, who was a nurse at Moorgate walk-in centre in Bury, was being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office for allegedly breaching patient confidentiality. The ICO is no longer pursuing action against Ms Makin, who is still in Fairfield Hospital and not well enough to speak to police.

Campbell, aged 34, of Willow Street, Bury, was last week fined £1,050 and ordered to pay £1,160 costs, plus a £15 victim surcharge. He pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining NHS patients’ information over a four-month period.

He was caught when patients who had been treated at Moorgate and Prestwich walk-in centres complained to Bury Primary Care Trust because they had been contacted by a man who asked them about their injuries and encouraged them to make a claim.

l Health bosses have apologised to 189 people for the security breach. John Boyington, NHS Bury managing director, said: “We take our responsibilities in respecting the security and confidentiality of information very seriously and we will always investigate and take appropriate action.”