More than 20,000 staff at Marks & Spencer have been told they may be at risk of identity crime after a laptop computer was stolen, it has been reported.
The retailer has written to 26,000 present employees in its final salary pension scheme warning they are at risk if the data is accessed by criminals.
BBC Radio 4 said salary details, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance and phone numbers were on the machine, which was stolen from a printing firm.
The laptop was stolen on April 18 in a burglary on a printing firm that had been given the computer so it could process letters to M&S employees about pension changes.
It is believed the machine was taken in an opportunist theft and stolen for its own value rather than the information on it.
Two days after the burglary the company wrote to all staff whose details were on the laptop warning them they could be at risk.
The firm is offering free credit checks to the people affected.
