THE PUBLIC is being exposed to identity fraud because high street banks are dumping details of their customers’ accounts on the street, Britain’s information watchdog gives warning today.

In an interview with The Times, Richard Thomas says that he has received “highly disturbing” evidence that personal information, including bank statements and loan applications, had been left in bin bags on streets throughout the country.

Mr Thomas, the Information Commissioner, describes the behaviour of some bank branches, as well as some shops and hotels, as unacceptable and gives warning that they are heightening the risk of fraud and of criminals stealing people’s identities.

He says that he is considering taking enforcement action against financial institutions, including banks and building societies, which could result in them facing unlimited fines. His office is investigating currently allegations of lax security by the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“There have been cases now which have quite strong prima facie evidence which we are urgently investigating, of banks’ rubbish bags found on the public highway outside banks,” he says. “And I have seen some of these where, open up the rubbish bag and there you find bank statements.” He describes one example of a bank transfer of £500,000 in the name of a woman with an unusual name.

“If the banks themselves are being careless with information, that seems to me to be wholly unacceptable”, Mr Thomas says.

Members of the public and even bank employees have brought complaints about lax security over people’s personal information to his office.

He says it is particularly worrying that allegations have been made against a number of high street banks. “What we are seeing so far is highly concerning, it is highly disturbing and we need to send a very strong wake-up call.”

Cases being examined by his office include an application for a current account — which had the individual’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number, previous address, current account number, mother’s maiden names and place of birth — which was found in the rubbish.

Other cases include a loan application form that had a range of personal details, and photocopies of bank statements with account numbers, name and address and a mortgage application letter. One included the £20,594 balance in the current account and details of the customer’s savings.

Mr Thomas highlights a growing black market industry in which “secret” details of people’s private lives are traded. He says a “pernicious black market” now exists in the buying and selling of information about individuals, including details of their personal finances and telephone records. Public officials, bank staff or others are “corrupted” in order to get personal information about people, he says.

The revelations follow a warning from one of Scotland’s police chiefs that criminal gangs have infiltrated about 10 per cent of Glasgow’s financial call centres, stealing customers’ identities and fleecing them of thousands of pounds.

The gangs either place members in call centres or intimidate employees to provide sensitive customer details, Detective Chief Inspector Derek Robertson, of Strathclyde Police, said A spokesman for the British Bankers’ Association said: “Banks take their duty of confidentiality very seriously and it is normal practice to dispose of confidential customer information securely."

A spokeswoman for the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the organisations being investigated for dumping customers’ rubbish in bin bags, said that nothing from the bank should be put in bin bags. She said: “We are really sorry about this. There was a breach of guidelines. Clearly these items were found. It is unacceptable.”

The spokeswoman said that it was company policy for all confidential information to be collected by specialist rubbish disposal teams.

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