Former Chesterfield man 'shocked' to receive stranger's passport in the post

A man who used to live in Chesterfield received a stranger's passport in the post in what he described as a "big privacy breach".
Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.
Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.

Charlie Wood applied for a new passport and later received two envelopes - the first containing his old passport, and the second containing somebody else's.

The Bombardier worker was "completely shocked" when he opened the Home Office package last week to find an expired passport belonging to a woman from Cheshire.

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Mr Wood, who lives with his partner Gemma, said he couldn't believe the Government could make such a huge mistake.

Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.
Charlie Wood, pictured with partner Gemma, received a stranger's passport in the post as well as his own.

The 19-year-old said: "What shocked me the most is the fact that it's a government organisation.

"If you can't trust them to look after your personal information, that's really bad. If it was my passport I would be really worried."

The passport meant Mr Wood had the woman's picture, date of birth, and other personal details. He said he was able to easily track down her Facebook profile.

He said: "For me to be able to do that - it's really bad.

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"It's given me a lack of trust. This is an organisation that you expect to be able to give all of your details to and not even give a second thought about it.

"I'm sure the woman would be furious if she found out about it."

Mr Wood phoned the Home Office to tell them about the error, but said the person he spoke to seemed "disinterested".

He said: "When they answered she just sort of said 'oh right, OK, just sent it back to us'. I thought 'there's a bit more to it than that'.