A MORRISONS employee with a grudge against the supermarket group cost it more than £2 million by leaking sensitive data relating to 100,000 of its staff members on to the internet, a jury at Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Andrew Skelton sent a letter and computer disc containing the information to the Telegraph & Argus and two national newspapers after he was suspended by the firm for six weeks on suspicion of trying to send an illegal drug from the mail room at its head office in Gain Lane, Thornbury, Bradford, it is alleged.

Skelton, 43, of Water Street, Liverpool, was senior IT auditor at the Bradford office when the three packages were sent out to the Press in May last year, prosecutor Katherine Robinson said.

He denies fraud by abuse of position, unauthorised access to data and disclosing personal data.

Miss Robinson told the jury the envelope sent by Skelton through the company mail room in May 2013 was leaking white powder and handed to the police but was not found to contain a banned substance.

He was given a warning for using the mail room to send the item to an Ebay customer and that led to him bearing a grudge against Morrisons, it is alleged.

On March 13, 2014, the T&A received a package containing a disc and a letter saying it contained information about 100,000 Morrisons staff members.

The newspaper contacted Morrisons and the police were informed.

Similar letters and packages went to The Daily Mirror and the Guardian in London a few days later.

The leaked information on a file sharing site contained names, dates of birth, addresses, National Insurance numbers, salaries and bank account details.

The Crown's case is that Skelton leaked the data to cause loss to Morrisons.

The trial continues.