A student paid £150 for a Blackberry phone which contained the personal details of cabinet ministers, others MPs, civil servants and senior police officers.Journalism student Darryl Curtis, 44, said he bought the device from a homeless man in Sheffield and found it contained the details of several hundred people.He said it also held the National Insurance number, home address and computer passwords of a former chief executive of Sheffield City Council, leading him to believe it was once his.
Mr Curtis told the Sheffield Star: 'One of the homeless guys knew I was a journalism student and said his friend had a BlackBerry with the numbers for Tony Blair and Buckingham Palace on it.'I arranged to meet him and I paid him ?150. There was in fact no number for Tony Blair but there was Buckingham Palace - as well a load of top Labour people including John Prescott, Richard Caborn, Ed Balls and David Miliband.'
Mr Curtis, who is studying at Sheffield Hallam University, said he had been interviewing the homeless people as part of an assignment.A South Yorkshire police spokesman told the paper: 'We are satisfied we have traced the owner but an investigation continues into the circumstances of a reported theft.'There was a theft of a BlackBerry from a car, involving a forced entry, in September 2006. 'The BlackBerry will remain in police hands until further inquiries are carried out. We have made arrangements with the owner to identify the device.'
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