Burglary leaves Precise Mortgages customers at risk

The burglary, which took place in October, saw a number of personal computers stolen.

A break-in at Precise Mortgages’ Wolverhampton office has left 14,000 mortgage customers under threat of identity fraud.

The burglary, which took place in October, saw a number of personal computers stolen.

Precise’s parent Charter Court Financial Servicessaid affected customers' money and data is safe and secure, but added “there could be an increased risk of misuse of personal data or identity theft”.

The bank has been working with independent experts and the police and has written to those affected to explain its position.

Based on current investigations the bank said the incident is not associated with cybercrime or hacking – the theft was about the computer hardware rather than the data stored.

Charter Savings Bank said in a statement: “Charter Savings Bank has written to some of our customers to notify them about a break-in at one of our offices which resulted in the theft of a number of personal computers.

“Charter Savings Bank customers’ money and accounts remain safe and secure.

“We are reassuring savings customers that unauthorised access to their accounts is not possible as a direct result of this incident since no customer passwords, security question data or bank account details were saved on the computers. The stolen computers were not used in or linked to our core banking systems.

“This incident is not in any way associated with cybercrime or hacking of computer systems. Based on our investigations, working with independent experts and the police, we believe that the personal computers were the motivation for the theft rather than any data.

“We have notified some customers that there is a possibility that some of their personal data may have been saved on some of the stolen personal computers and have informed them of the steps we have taken and are continuing to take to protect them against any misuse of this data.

“While we have no evidence to suggest any personal customer data has in fact been disclosed as a result of this incident and it is unlikely that the data will be discovered, there could be an increased risk of misuse of personal data or identity theft for these customers.

“Charter Savings Bank takes security issues very seriously and we apologise to customers for this incident.”

After the burglary took place the bank put extra security measures and fraud monitoring procedures in place in a bid to stop such an incident occurring again.