Private papers found blowing in the wind

THOUSANDS of sensitive documents, including mortgage applications, bank paying-in books and photo-copies of cheques were found blowing in the wind on a Warrington car park.
Early risers at Lymm were shocked to find the documents on the Davies Way car park alongside the Bridgewater Canal.
Many had blown into the canal – and others were picked up by passers-by.
Some were scattered around a recycling centre on the car park, but others had been blown all over a wide area between the paper bins and the canal.
Concerned residents collected as many as possible to avoid the possibility of them falling into the wrong hands.
Police were informed and a team of workmen from Warrington Borough Council arrived at the scene to collect the documents
Data protection authorities were also alerted.
Many of the documents bore the name Classic Mortgages, with an address in Manchester.
A spokesman for Classic Mortgage Partnership Ltd., of Barlow Moor Road, Manchester, said: “Classic Mortgages went into liquidation a couple of years ago. We are a different company.
“I placed a box of old documents relating to the former company in the paper bin at Lymm at 9pm. They were all safely inside the bin when I left them.
“Someone must have got into the bin and scattered them around.
“But they were all several years old and no longer of any significance.”
But a resident who helped collect the papers, Hilary Knowles, said: “These documents bear the names of people applying for mortgages, with their addresses, bank details, etc. They could still be relevant.
“If you can appreciate just how much information has to go on a mortgage application you will realise the extent of the personal information wafting around on the car park.
“Most of the documents relate to Classic Mortgages, but other mortgage company names appear on other documents. It looks as if the same people run these companies as their names appear over and over again.
“The mortgage applications cover Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, Warrington and West Yorkshire.
“By the time the council arrived, many of the papers had blown in the canal.
“Residents did their best to collect them, but there were just too many. People were appalled at what they saw.
“A man who was sleeping in a narrow boat on the canal heard a loud bang at about 3am so vandals may have been responsible for scattering the papers around.
“But a paper bank on a public car park is not a suitable place for disposing of papers like these – no matter how old they are.”
A council spokesperson commented: “On a regular site visit to Davies Way Recycling Site in Lymm this morning we found a large amount of paper scattered on the ground. It would appear that these had been removed from the recycling bins overnight. This is the third time such an incident has occurred in recent weeks.
“Members of the recycling team and the environmental enforcement team from the council attended the scene and evidence was recovered. The environmental enforcement and recycling team are now investigating this incident further.
“The site has now been cleaned and will remain under close surveillance over the coming weeks.”
Councillor Alan Litton, executive ember for environment services, added ‘’We take such incidents very seriously, as fly tipping is a criminal offence. Officers from the authority are liaising with the police and other agencies in order to catch the person who is vandalising a well used and established community facility. ‘’
Pictured: stunned residents survey the littered car park.