Home Office disc found in laptop by PC firm (From The Bolton News)

Home Office disc found in laptop by PC firm

11:07am Thursday 28th February 2008 in

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A CONFIDENTIAL Home Office disc was found in a laptop being repaired at a Bolton company.

Police seized the CD-Rom from Leapfrog Computers in Westhoughton after it had been discovered hidden inside the computer - which had been bought on internet auction site eBay.

A technician at the firm in School Street was working on the laptop when he found the disc, marked "Home Office Confidential", hidden under the keyboard.

Founder and managing director Lee Bevan contacted police, who spent three hours interviewing him.

Then they spoke to the technician before taking away the computer and the disc, which was encrypted and unreadable, for further examination.

Mr Bevan, aged 36, said: "The disc had been put inside the laptop on purpose. As soon as we found it, we contacted the police, who came immediately.

"I'm just glad it's turned up here rather than landing in the wrong hands.

"I don't know where the disc has come from. I have never seen a disc stored in this way before."

Mr Bevan said his customer had bought the laptop in good faith from eBay and had no idea the disc was there.

Staff at Leapfrog are being finger-printed and having DNA swabs to rule them out of the investigation. A police spokesman said: "A laptop has been recovered and inquiries are continuing."

A Home Office spokesman added: "We understand that encrypted IT equipment has been handed to Greater Manchester Police. Both the laptop and the disc were encrypted, thus safeguarding any information that might be stored on them.

"Investigations are now under way. It would be inappropriate to comment further."

The Government has been rocked by several data losses in recent months, including two from the NHS in Bolton.

In November, Chancellor Alistair Darling admitted that the details of 25 million child benefit claimants had gone missing when two CDs containing the information had been lost in the post.

Locally, two computers were stolen from the Royal Bolton Hospital last year. Details included on the PCs was information about cancer and chest patients.

Earlier this month, Bolton Primary Care Trust revealed that the records of 3,200 patients were dumped at a landfill site instead of being burned or shredded.