Hundreds not told about birth records theft (From Thisisdorset)

Hundreds not told about birth records theft

7:00pm Friday 15th February 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

HUNDREDS of people whose birth details were stolen from Poole Register Office almost 20 years ago were never told, it has been revealed.

Nineteen-year-old Harmony Rowe has just discovered her birth records went missing in 1988 when two Poole registrars had their registers stolen.

The registers contained 559 birth records, 32 records of still births, 95 death records, and 52 marriage records.

But the vast majority of those affected were never told.

Harmony only found out when she applied for a new copy of her birth certificate in order to apply for a job.

The 19-year-old, of Oakdale, Poole, was shocked to receive a standard letter headed "Dear Sir/Madam" when she visited the office at the Guildhall.

It read: "Thank you for your request for a certified copy of a full birth certificate.

"Sadly we are unable to provide you with a copy as the record is from a register that was stolen from our office."

The worried teenager was directed to the General Register Office (GRO), and now faces a wait of at least a week for the certificate - forcing her to put her job interview on hold.

She said: "I'm frustrated I didn't know or I could have ordered it ages ago. It's caused quite a lot of inconvenience. I'm still shocked they didn't tell me, or send out a letter when the register was stolen."

Harmony was also concerned about the potential for identity fraud, but the GRO says she is not at risk.

Poole council referred our enquiries to the GRO, whose spokesman said: "Colleagues at the General Register Office in Southport found the original file on this event and confirmed that only people whose birth entries had not been copied and send to GRO as part of the normal quarterly returns' were contacted so another registration could be made.

"For those entries where a central copy was held at GRO then the parents were not contacted. This is normal procedure and the important issue for GRO is that a birth certificate could be issued for those affected.

"I can understand why your reader was upset but she should be reassured that the details held in a birth register are public information and could not be put to use by anyone trying to commit fraud."

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates access to and use of personal information, said: "It's not the most sensitive information, but information found on a birth certificate can be used in security questions for accounts - things like mother's maiden name, date of birth, or where you were born - so there are some risks associated with it.

"If it got into the wrong hands it could be used to get one step closer to identity fraud."