The Driver and Vehicle Agency in Coleraine admitted to have lost two computer discs that were containing the personal information of more than 6.000 Irish drivers.

The vehicle licensing staff said that the two discs that were not encrypted got lost at a Parcelforce sorting centre in Coventry while they were sent to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing offices in Swansea, Wales.

The discs contained the names, addresses and car information of 7.685 car- owners, which were centralized at the request of several vehicle manufacturers that wanted to have the data in order to contact drivers over potential or already occurred problems in some car models.

The Northern Ireland Environment Minister, Arlene Foster, confirmed that the police began a full- scale investigation. The Northern Ireland Driver and Vehicle Agency is run by the Environment Minister.

The discs were sent on November 20 and 21, but the staff realized the bluff only last week, which seriously hurts the investigation.

The Minister has set up a help line for all those whose data has been lost, while the staff has been alerted.

The accident comes only two weeks after the names, ages, bank account details and addresses of around 7.25 million families in the United Kingdom have been also lost while being sent from the Revenue and Customs office in Newcastle to the National Audit Office in London.