Criminals are becoming more creative in the types of crime they are committing, to avoid detection. One such crime is the theft of someone's identity; it sounds bizarre and like something out of a spy film, but it is happening. One way of doing this is to get details of someone's bank account and then use this information to buy things, set up mortgages or to sell on to a third party.

'How do they get hold of someone's bank account details?' You may ask. 'Surely that is the responsibility of the individual'. In fact what they do is to get the information from ATM machine receipts, credit card receipts and debit card receipts. You or your staff may dispose of some of these and you need to consider how they are disposed of. We would suggest that any pieces of paper which contain someone' bank details on should be destroyed and this can be done by either shredding or burning.

A report was received that there was an incident in Scarborough where a member of the public came a cross a black bin liner full of discarded receipts/ This would have been ideal information for a potential identity thief.