Documents appearing to hold sensitive information from the British armed forces have been found scattered across a city street in Newcastle.
The Ministry of Defence is investigating after a passerby picked up piles of papers containing information including army soldier ranks, emails, shift patterns and weapon-issue details.
The papers were found by Gateshead man Mike Gibbard, who spotted them spilling out of a black binbag and scattered across a pavement in the Scotswood area of Newcastle on 16 March.
He told the BBC it was “crazy” to have found the documents as he passed by on his way to watch Newcastle United's cup final game against Liverpool.
"I peered down and started to see names on bits of papers, and numbers, and I thought 'what's that?'," he told the broadcaster. “They were piled up against a wall, in a black bag, in the road, underneath cars – spread all the way up the road.”
He said he found more documents on the other side of the road and was alarmed by the contents.
Mr Gibbard said he asked his wife: "Why is it here? This shouldn't be here, anyone could pick it up."
He said the documents appeared to be connected to regiments at Catterick garrison, in North Yorkshire.
Mr Gibbard told the BBC he saw “details of the perimeter, the patrol, checking weapons in and out, requests for leave, mobile phone numbers, high ranking officers”.
Some of the information was marked with “official-sensitive”, which is information “that is not intended for public release”.
Government guidance states that the unintended disclosure of official-sensitive information “can lead to moderate damage (including to the UK’s longer-term strategic/economic position) and, in exceptional circumstances, it could lead to a threat to life”.
An MOD spokesperson said: “We take the protection of our information very seriously and this incident is being closely investigated.
“We have rapidly reviewed the information and understand no sensitive operational defence information is contained within the documents.”
Mr Gibbard handed the documents over the Northumbria Police, who have since handed them over to the Ministry of Defence.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “Shortly before 3pm on Sunday, March 16, we received a report that potentially confidential documents had been found on Railway Street in the Scotswood area of Newcastle.
“The documents have now been handed to the Ministry of Defence.”
Government guidelines recommend that sensitive documents be destroyed using shredders or “burn bags”.
A Number 10 spokesman added: “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.
“As you will appreciate, I won’t be able to comment on any specifics while that takes place, but you can expect that appropriate action will be taken in response to any potential information breach.
“It’s obviously important that that investigation is allowed to take its course.”
