A FORMER Morrisons' employee told a jury it would be "ridiculous" of him to leak payroll data just because he was given a verbal warning by the firm eight months previously.

Andrew Skelton said: "I did not have a grudge against any individual. I certainly did not have a grudge against 100,000 individuals."

Skelton, 43, denies fraud by abuse of position, unauthorised access to data and disclosing personal data in March last year.

It is alleged he wanted to embarrass Morrisons and cause it financial harm by uploading sensitive payroll data on to a file sharing website.

The leak cost Morrisons more than £2 million.

Skelton, who was a senior IT auditor at the supermarket group's headquarters in Gain Lane, Thornbury, Bradford, is said to have been angry and frustrated with Morrisons after being disciplined over his use of the mail room to send a personal package.

Skelton told the jury today he began working for the firm in November, 2010.

He lived in a flat in Shipley, returning to his home in Water Street, Liverpool, at weekends.

In May, 2013, he was arrested and suspended from his job for six weeks because a package intercepted in the mail room was suspected to contain illegal drugs.

Skelton returned to work after police testing revealed that the substance was a legal dietary aid. He appealed the decision to discipline him but it was upheld.

He said his sideline was selling items on Ebay, from snow chains to superfoods. He paid the postage on the package and did not agree that any company rule was breached.

He was "annoyed, surprised and stunned" when he was arrested at work.

"It wasn't as if I was some sort of drug dealer who had finally been busted," he said.

Skelton said the payroll data was put on his work computer for external audit.

On March 11 last year, he received an anonymous package containing a CD and a letter. There were three files on the disc with the data on them.

The letter stated that "heads would roll" at Morrisons when the information was leaked.

Skelton said he destroyed it all and did not go to the firm or the police because he feared he would not be believed.

"I might have gone from victim and complainant to chief suspect," he said.

Katherine Robinson, prosecuting, suggested Skelton was lying about receiving the CD at his home to cover the fact that traces of it were found on his home computer.

"Did you see that file as your golden opportunity to get back at Morrisons?" she asked.

Skelton replied: "If I was going to steal sensitive Morrisons' data I would not steal data that was so intrinsically linked to me."

The trial continues.