This may be a mundane question but I cannot find an answer for it, as the law is not my area of expertise.
If an employee is under contract and copies files (on mass to a personal cloud storage) for the purpose of using them at a competitor, in the future, despite that their contract says the files are the companies property, they have clearly broken contracts and the law.
However, if the individual discovers this is breaking their contract and deletes the file before handing in their notice, are they still breaking the law if the files have not been shared or used?
UK and EU law