British ex-CTO booked for stealing e-vehicle data

A British national is accused of stealing crucial company data from a reputable e-vehicle firm in South Bengaluru.

Police are yet to trace the suspect, Steven Grant Woolley, 54, from Carbrooke in Norfolk, England.

A Narayanaswamy, deputy general manager at Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited, filed a complaint on behalf of Mahindra’s CEO Mahesh Babu. The jurisdictional Bandepalya police registered an FIR against the foreigner under IPC section 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant).

Woolley joined Mahindra on September 4, 2017, on a three-year contract. He was appointed the chief technology officer at the firm located in Bommanahalli. He put down his papers on April 17, 2019.

While Woolley was serving his three months’ notice period, the IT head of the Data Leakage Prevention System noticed that crucial company information had been compromised. They cross-checked and found that Woolley had on several occasions sent crucial company information from his official e-mail id to his personal email ID.

The information included the manufacturing details of batteries, mobile electric equipment, designs and technical data specifications.

On July 17, Woolley was confronted with the breach of data and dismissed from service.

Armed with evidence from the Internal Data Leakage Prevention System, Narayanappa approached the Bandepalya police and filed a complaint.