An administrative blunder left thousands of customers of UK supermarket chain Tesco open to identity fraud.

Store receipts - containing names and full credit card details - have been found carelessly discarded in a south-east England depot where they'd been taken to be destroyed. The haul would have made a big payday for bin raiding crooks, who might have been able to use the information to complete fraudulent transactions.

The papers were taken to the Christian Salvesen recycling depot in plastic carrier bags - instead of secure containers - and left unattended, The Sun reports. The UK tabloid was given a sample of receipts by workers concerned about the breach, and the lack of initial action by depot managers. The receipts came from Tesco's stores in Kent, Surrey, Essex and south east London.

After been informed about the problem, Tesco bosses have vowed to revamp security. ®

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