THE personal details of more than 140 vulnerable pensioners were found on an unencrypted data stick dropped in Oxford city centre.

One Tradings Standards officer last night said the information would be a “Christmas list” for conmen who seek to target the elderly, had it fallen into the wrong hands.

The memory stick contained details, including names, addresses and telephone numbers of all the clients of Cornmarket Street-based Oxford Aunts, which provides private nursing care to dozens of elderly and infirm clients across the south of England.

Many of them require live-in help from Oxford Aunts because they are suffering a terminal illness or dementia.

Among the firm’s clients are peers of the realm and some of Britain’s most eminent scientists, academics, educationalists and political commentators. More than 50 live in Oxfordshire.

The data stick also included payroll details and the names and addresses of hundreds of company employees.

It was dropped by an employee of Oxford Aunts.

It was found lying close to the bus stops in New Road by a member of the public and handed to the Oxford Mail.

Martin Woodley, Oxfordshire Trading Standards’ doorstep crime team leader, said: “We would have really big concerns if something like this got into the wrong hands.

“It could lead to potential victims of doorstep crime.

“These are exactly the sort of people who would be targeted.

“It would almost like a Christmas list if data like this got around.

“We could never prove there is a market for information like this, but what I do believe from the years I have been doing this is that the information about vulnerable victims gets passed around.

“People who become victims of distraction burglaries and doorstep crime often become repeat victims.”

Oxford Aunts’ chief officer, Lynda Gardner, said the company took its data protection duties extremely seriously.

She said: “It is regrettable that weaknesses in a procedure of dealing with client and care worker information are often only exposed when they are either deliberately or inadvertently exposed.

“Following notification from the Oxford Mail that they had been handed some of our confidential client and care worker information by a member of the public, we have begun a thorough investigation into our procedures for dealing with and protecting that information.

“It is clear that those procedures were inadequate and we are now taking steps to ensure that a similar episode does not reoccur.”

She said clients and care workers would be told of the lapse, and steps would be taken by the company to ensure it does not happen again.

She added: “We wish to reassure our clients and care workers that no information of a medical or other personal nature has been compromised.”

Kirsty McCaskill, a spokes-man for the Information Commissioner’s Office, the authority set up to uphold information rights, promote openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals, said: “As with all alleged breaches of the Data Protection Act, we will investigate any complaints we receive.”