The highways agency has been forced to publicly apologise to a Dartford woman after personal and financial details were sent to her by mistake.

Lorraine Carroll, 51 of Bow Arrow Lane, was left furious and upset with the failures of Dart Charge staff - the automated toll system at the Dartford Crossing - after she received council tax, driving licence and V5 documents of the wrong person.

Highways England has put the mistake down to “human error” in what has been confirmed the first case of its kind since the installation of the electronic system in November 2014.

News Shopper:
Lorraine Carroll, 51 of Bow Arrow Lane

Mrs Carroll contacted the owner of these key personal documents on August 2 to explain she had received them and he in turn is believed to have launched action against the Dartford Crossing.

To make matters worse Mrs Carroll now fears she could become the victim of fraud as she had initially been told her details had been sent out as well.

Highways England has now u-turned on this statement and insists that her details have not been compromised.

Speaking to News Shopper Mrs Carroll said: “I have absolutely no faith in Dart Charge at all.

“When I opened the email, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“I do not believe this is the first time it would have happened and they are so blasé about it - how many other people has this happened to?

“I’m concerned that my details have been passed onto someone else.

“When you send off personal information to an organisation like this, you do so in good faith.

“Has my information been disclosed to a third party?

“I have no proof one way or another and they don't seem to know what they are doing.”

By law the company has breached the seventh principle of the Data Protection Act 1998, which states, that “appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.”

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Council tax, driving licence and V5 documents of the wrong person were leaked due to "human error", Dart Charge insists

Mrs Carroll has lived in Dartford for more than two decades and relies heavily on the crossing to visit her mother who lives in Essex.

By signing up to the Dart Charge with a local resident account Mrs Carroll has access to a travel subsidy, but in light of the recent breach in personal information, is seriously considering withdrawing her application.

Ms Carroll claims that Dart Charge hasn’t taken the matter seriously enough and believes that human error can't justify the dangerous breach of privacy.

Prior to the installation of the automated system, Mrs Carroll manually filled in her details in an office office adjacent the crossing and feels confident that nothing like this would have happened had it still been in place.

“As much as an apology, measures need to be put in place that this won’t happen again,” Ms Carroll said, "I need a proper investigation to know exactly what has happened and an explanation from Dart Charge as I still have no apology or anything from them at all."