15 Million People Exposed to Identity Theft as HM Revenue & Customs Mislays Discs

The chairman of HMRC, Paul Gray, has resigned after losing two discs which held a personal details database of 15 million people receiving child benefits.

This may be the most serious and largest identity theft scare to happen in the UK. The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is to make a statement to the Commons on the loss of this identity database at 3.30pm today.

The loss of this identity and address data was reportedly discovered about two weeks ago and police investigations have gone underway into the whereabouts of these identity data files. The concern here is that millions of people are the potential targets of identity thieves with names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details all recorded on these address verified databases. Some personal details of children are also thought to be included on the identity data files.

It has been reported that the HMRC was in breach of data protection regulations in way of which these identity data discs were being transported.