AN INSURANCE giant has been accused of a 'cavalier' attitude to its customers after losing personal details of about 1,600 people in Greater Manchester.

Royal London has admitted a hand-held computer used by one of its collectors has gone missing - with names, addresses and policy and contact details of customers.

In a letter to affected customers the company says the information can't be accessed without a password, and that the palmtop device only has a short battery life.

But one Ashton under Lyne customer said they are not taking the issue seriously enough.

Keith Sales contacted Royal London's head of premium operations, the official who wrote the letters - and said he was 'worried' by what he was told.

He said: "Royal London said the data is password-protected, but he let it slip that the password is a simple PIN number.

"The company say the battery life of the device is short, but when challenged about the fact that battery chargers exist, he admitted that it was not a security feature at all."

Information

Mr Sales said he was assured that the information stored on the computer, was 'very basic' and of 'little use to anyone'. But he said: "I countered this by suggesting that he supply me with very basic information, such as where he lived, what his wife was called, and what insurance policies they had. He seemed rather embarrassed.

"The company's attitude to this loss is cavalier. Anything can be lost, and I have no issue with information of this kind being held on computers. It is the way that an incident is dealt with that concerns me."

A spokesman for Royal London said: "It is a very unfortunate situation, but there is little likelihood of any adverse consequences. We do take these matters very seriously and we have taken a number of steps as a safeguard, including asking extra data protection questions to try to ensure that nobody but genuine customers gets information."

Mr Sales, whose wife Mavis also received letter, said: "Royal London are agreeing that such things as identity theft could result.

"The Information Commissioner says people should be advised how, where and when the loss occurred in situations like this. They should be told what measures have been put in place to secure the systems and what the company itself is prepared to do to help. Royal London have done none of these things."

The incident is the latest in a string of blunders in which electronic devices with personal information have been lost.