Cash loans company loses Belvedere father's personal details (From News Shopper)

Cash loans company Shopacheck has lost Belvedere father Sacha Biggs' personal details

11:57am Saturday 14th January 2012 in Bexley

A BELVEDERE resident is among 1.4 million people whose personal details have been lost by a cash loans company.

Sacha Biggs, of Grove Road, applied for a loan from Shopacheck in 2010 but never took up the offer.

Last month he was sent a letter from the company informing him that two IT back-up storage tapes had gone missing from one of its offices in West Yorkshire at the end of November.

Information included his name, address, date of birth, telephone number and email address.

Mr Biggs, a father-of-four, said: "I'm angry. The apology is not acceptable I don't think it is suffice.

"I want to know how they are going to go about retrieving this information and I want to be kept informed.

"I don't know who has the information and what hands it has fallen into."

Since November the 40-year-old claims two people have applied for a credit card using his name as well as his account being fraudulently used abroad.

He believes this could be connected to the loss of his personal information by Shopacheck.

Mr Biggs said: "It's effecting us quite badly knowing someone out there has all my information."

A spokeswoman for Cattles Group, which owns Shopacheck, confirmed an investigation began immediately when the tapes were discovered missing.

She said: "The storage tapes contain low-level personal data relating to 1.4 million customers, limited to names and addresses for 800,000 but also including date of birth and payment history for 600,000.

"The tapes also include HR data relating to staff in employment with the Cattles Group up to October 2010. A process to inform affected customers and employees is underway."

She added: "There is no evidence that the information has fallen into the wrong hands or been used maliciously.

"However, Cattles takes its obligations to protect personal data of its customers and staff extremely seriously and we deeply regret what has happened.

"We have employed a specialist data security firm with extensive experience in financial services, to review data security across the group and advise on any necessary improvements.”