A FORMER member of Police Scotland staff is due to stand trial after she denied 44 charges of illegally accessing the personal data of dozens of people over a period spanning four years.

Joanna Miller, 31, is alleged to have breached the Data Protection Act on several occasions between November 2020 and July 2023.

Almost all the alleged offences are said to have taken place at an address in Gourock.

She is charged with knowingly or recklessly obtaining information without the consent of a data controller by accessing Police Scotland’s Crime Management System ‘without a legitimate policing purpose’.

Of the 44 charges she faces, 39 refer to Miller ‘obtaining and viewing’ personal data by accessing crime reports.

The remaining five concern data and photographs of Police Scotland personnel.

Two of these charges allege that she disclosed images of individuals via WhatsApp group chats.

(Image: Newsquest)

Prosecutors say all but one of the alleged offences took place at a property in Gourock’s Avonmouth Place.

She is also charged with accessing a crime report at London Road police office in Glasgow on April 19 last year.

Miller’s case called at Greenock Sheriff Court on Friday, with defence solicitor Ellen MacDonald submitting a not guilty plea on her client’s behalf.

Sheriff James Spy fixed a trial for January 22 next year.

The Telegraph understands Miller was not employed as a police officer, and that she was initially suspended from her position within the force, but has since resigned.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: "A 31-year-old woman is subject of a report to the procurator fiscal in connection with the mishandling of police information."