Information Commissioner Christopher Graham says ‘blagging’ is a serious crime whose extent has been revealed by a succession of cases in recent times. The current maximum punishment for such an offence is an unlimited fine in a Crown Court, or 5,000 in a Magistrates Court. The Information Commissioner’s Office said it had seen an 18 percent rise in the number of allegations of blagging between 2010 and 2011. He said tougher sentencing of the sort that had been amended at the report stage three years ago in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, should now be enacted.”]