The loss of the national child benefit database is the third time that HM Revenue & Customs has placed Eric Tizzard at risk of identity fraud.

His experience suggests that if the missing information has fallen into criminal hands it might be several months or even years before individuals discover that their identities have been stolen.

Mr Tizzard, 39, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, first fell victim to inept officialdom in 1999 when two tax rebate cheques, totalling £801, were sent to an address in Brighton where he had never lived. When he inquired about the whereabouts of his money he was sent photocopies of the cheques indicating that they had been cashed.

The matter appeared to have been resolved over the next few months when the rebate was paid through his wages.

But in 2002 Mr Tizzard was contacted by a debt collection agency demanding the repayment of £1,300 from a Barclaycard account. The account had been opened fraudulently in his name and was registered at the Brighton address. Mr Tizzard was able to prove eventually that the account was fraudulent.

A second agency subsequently demanded repayment of £700 owed on an overdrawn bank account.

Mr Tizzard said: “It was a very stressful time, I kept thinking the bailiffs would be knocking at the door.”

Last year a third agency, which had bought a £325 debt run up in his name, began bombarding Mr Tizzard and his wife, Helen, with menacing text messages demanding that he repay the amount.

Only after the police considered bringing harassment charges against the collection agency did the threatening messages stop.

Earlier this year Mr Tizzard was asked by a potential new employer to provide an official disclosure of his employment history. He contacted HMRC to ask for a copy of his records and received a 54-page document that showed that the person who stole his identity in Brighton had also used his name to obtain employment.

After Mr Tizzard demanded that his records be corrected, the HMRC sent the amended document to a woman in Southampton.

Unlike the first recipient of his personal data, the woman contacted Mr Tizzard, forwarded his documents to him and gave him a written assurance that she would not abuse his identity details.

Mr Tizzard, a security guard, complained to his MP, who raised the issue with HMRC and also brought the case to the attention of the BBC consumer programme Watchdog.

He subsequently received several letters of apology from HMRC and a “goodwill” gesture of a £40 cheque.

But just a month after his ordeal appeared to be over, Alistair Darling announced that the Revenue had lost copies of the records of 25 million Britons on two computer discs.

Among the names on the discs will be that of Mr Tizzard’s daughter, 12, and son, 7, as well as his own address, national insurance number, date of birth and bank account details.

Mr Tizzard said: “When I heard the news about the child benefit records going missing I just couldn’t believe it.

“Ministers are saying there’s no evidence of fraudulent activity, but they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.

“The clever fraudster won’t touch your bank account, he’ll just use the information he has obtained to set up new accounts and you won’t know anything about it until the debt collectors come calling years down the line.

“At this stage no one can possibly know if their identity has been cloned.”