A LEADING Labour politician in Bromsgrove faces a £1,200 bill for obtaining information illegally and using it for political advantage during the 1999 local election campaign.

Labour group leader Cllr Peter McDonald (Uffdown and Waseley) pleaded guilty at Redditch Magistrates Court yesterday to two breaches of the 1984 Data Protection Act.

The court heard he obtained a list of free bus pass holders from Bromsgrove District Council and targeted them with pamphlets warning of Conservative cuts to the scheme.

The agent for the Information Commissioner, Peter Wiseman, prosecuting, said it was "a deliberate invasion by Mr McDonald of the privacy of private individuals, gaining access through his privileged position to their personal data."

Susan Snow, defending, said there were only two complaints made by friends of Cllr McDonald's political opponents.

Magistrates' chairman Cliff Weston imposed a fine of £250 for each charge and £780 costs.

Cllr McDonald, who is also a county councillor and prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bromsgrove, said he did not think the verdict would affect his position in the Labour Party.

He said: "The information I received obviously should not have been used for those purposes, but I stand foursquare in warning the senior citizens that they would lose their bus passes.

"In under two years that is exactly what has happened."