My first post here,hello all.

A bit of background first.
My wife is a mortgage advisor and worked for one of the big banks for about 18mths.She has worked in the industry for the past 15 years.She has in the past 6 months gone self employed as a broker still FSA regulated and has all the correct qualifications.
When she was at her last job in the bank she made a personal record of clients details that were coming in to see her about a mortgage so she could contact them in the future for further business and referals.There was nothing sinister about keeping the record it was purely being professional and looking for future business through the bank.It was something she did at her previous bank where she worked for 13 years.When she left her previous job she destroyed the diary with all the names and details in it as she no longer had any use for it.
When she left the most recent bank she brought the diary home (in a box with her belongings) and promptly forgot about it.
After practicing her business as a broker for the last 6 months she found the diary and sent letters to about a dozen names from it.Yes it was a stupid thing to do in hindsight but as the credit crunch was hitting business is harder to come by so she thought she would test the water.4 appointments were made and eventually business was done with one of them.They ultimately canceled their policy for life cover and she is now in the process of repaying £2000 to the company for commision she recieved.
Tonight she has recieved a text from a former boss stating that she has had 3 complaints from people my wife targetted in her advertising campaign.The former boss said she will take it further.
We are obviously concerned as I believe she has breached the data protection act and want to know what the penaties could be.
Thanks for your anticipated help.

Tonight she has recieved a text from a former boss stating that she has
had 3 complaints from people my wife targetted in her advertising
campaign.The former boss said she will take it further.
We are obviously concerned as I believe she has breached the data
protection act and want to know what the penaties could be.
Thanks for your anticipated help.

I have trouble taking anyone making legal threats by text message seriously.

I would have thought breach of confidence is more likely to be an issue
than data protection. The former employer would have to show damages,
i.e. lost commissions, if there are any.

Usual caveat, I don't know what I'm talking about.

After practicing her business as a broker for the last 6 months she
found the diary and sent letters to about a dozen names from it.Yes it
was a stupid thing to do in hindsight but as the credit crunch was
hitting business is harder to come by so she thought she would test
the water.4 appointments were made and eventually business was done
with one of them.They ultimately canceled their policy for life cover
and she is now in the process of repaying £2000 to the company for
commision she recieved.
Tonight she has recieved a text from a former boss stating that she
has had 3 complaints from people my wife targetted in her advertising
campaign.The former boss said she will take it further.

I'd be more worried about breach of contract than data protection. I'd also
be worried about a possible complaint to the FSA.

I'm also astonished that the bank has had 3 complaints out of 'about a
dozen' advertisement letters. What could your wife have written to upset so
many of the people that much that they went to the trouble of contacting the
bank? Normally, response rates are only about 1%. She seems to have
generated a response rate of around 25%. I'm sure that the bank must think
that your wife has targeted many hundreds of their clients. If the numbers
are really as small as you say, you need to find some means of communicating
that to the bank (without admitting anything!), and hopefully they will let
the matter drop.

Your major problem is that this part of the bank is probably not very busy
at the moment, so the manager has plenty of time on his hands to deal with
this matter.

My wife is a mortgage advisor and worked for one of the big banks for
about 18mths.She has worked in the industry for the past 15 years.She
has in the past 6 months gone self employed as a broker still FSA
regulated and has all the correct qualifications.
When she was at her last job in the bank she made a personal record of
clients details that were coming in to see her about a mortgage so she
could contact them in the future for further business and
referals.There was nothing sinister about keeping the record it was
purely being professional and looking for future business through the
bank.It was something she did at her previous bank where she worked for
13 years.When she left her previous job she destroyed the diary with all
the names and details in it as she no longer had any use for it.
When she left the most recent bank she brought the diary home (in a box
with her belongings) and promptly forgot about it.
After practicing her business as a broker for the last 6 months she
found the diary and sent letters to about a dozen names from it.Yes it
was a stupid thing to do in hindsight but as the credit crunch was
hitting business is harder to come by so she thought she would test the
water.4 appointments were made and eventually business was done with one
of them.They ultimately canceled their policy for life cover and she is
now in the process of repaying £2000 to the company for commision she
recieved.
Tonight she has recieved a text from a former boss stating that she has
had 3 complaints from people my wife targetted in her advertising
campaign.The former boss said she will take it further.
We are obviously concerned as I believe she has breached the data
protection act and want to know what the penaties could be.
Thanks for your anticipated help.

There are three potential issues here. The first relates to the Data
Protection Act, for which advice can be sought from the Data Protection
registrar's office. The second is the professional code of conduct of the
FSA - there might be sections in her rules of registration which deal with
attempting to poach clients.

The third, and potentially most serious, is for breach of contract with her
previous employers. The bank would be entirely within its rights to seek
legal redress in the courts and the excuse suggested in your post will hold
little water. I suggest you tell your wife to ask her previous employers to
put any issues they have in writing, and get down to a solicitor.