The Ministry of Defence has launched an ‘urgent’ investigation after a cache of documents containing sensitive military information were found scattered on a street in Newcastle.
Papers marked ‘official – sensitive’ were discovered spilling out of a black bin bag in Scotswood on March 16.
They included details about soldiers’ ranks, shift patterns, email addresses, weapon issue records and access information for military facilities.
Downing Street said ‘appropriate action’ would be taken following the discovery of the classified military documents.
The papers appear to relate to units based at Catterick Garrison barracks and among them was a sheet headed ‘armoury keys and hold IDS codes’ – believed to reference an armoury and intruder detection system.
Mike Gibbard, from Gateshead, made the discovery as he was parking ahead of Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup final clash with Liverpool.
The Ministry of Defence has launched an ‘urgent’ investigation after a cache of documents containing sensitive military information were found scattered on a street in Newcastle
Downing Street said ‘appropriate action’ would be taken following the discovery of the classified military documents
‘At first, I thought it was regular office material and someone had just dumped it on the industrial estate,’ he told MailOnline.
‘But when I walked past and started to notice more paperwork, alarm bells started ringing. It wasn’t something that should be there.
‘The first piece, which had been torn, had an Army soldier’s name which alerted me to it. You could tell it was their ID number.’
The 41-year-old said he found more documents on the other side of the road and was alarmed by the contents.
‘The more you looked it was an Aladdin’s cave of military documents dumped on the path,’ he added.
‘I was very shocked, it’s not what you expect to see when you’re going to a football match.’
Mr Gibbard said the papers included comprehensive detail about the layout of the base and the patrol area which could have been ‘so dangerous in the wrong hands’.
He said: ‘Someone had torn it up by hand and didn’t even do it properly. A4 bits were still stapled together and you could read all the information.’
He phoned 101 to report the discovery but after waiting 15 minutes decided to take a handful of documents to police officers nearby to alert them.
Information security consultant Gary Hibberd said the papers posed a ‘significant’ threat to those named.
‘They could be easily identified through social media, they could potentially be coerced, they could be harassed,’ he told the BBC.
The documents were handed in to Northumbria Police and they were subsequently given to the MoD.
In a statement, a MoD spokesman said: ‘We are aware that documentation allegedly relating to the department was recently handed in to the police.
‘We are looking into this urgently and the matter is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation.’
A Number 10 spokesman said: ‘The Ministry of Defence is currently looking at documents handed to the police, but the matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Army.’
Government guidance states that some ‘official – sensitive’ documents could pose a ‘threat to life’ if compromised.
It recommends that sensitive papers be destroyed using shredders or ‘burn bags’.
