The personal details of more than 50 people have been passed onto thugs who they reported for anti-social behaviour and drug taking on their estate.

Islington Council was notified the Information Commissioner yesterday (Thursday) following the massive breach of data protection which has resulted in the logs of calls from residents of the Andover Estate in Holloway – which included the names, street names or block names, and phone numbers where given – inadvertently falling into the hands of 10 members of a group now banned from the estate off Hornsey Road.

The gang, none of whom are from the estate, had been gathering there in recent weeks during the evenings into the early hours, resulting in a string of complaints about loud music, people smoking drugs and verbal abuse.

In light of the blunder, police patrols have now been stepped up around the Andover and Islington Council is in the process of contacting all those affected.

Louise Round, Islington Council’s corporate director of resources, said: “The council prepared legal injunctions against these 13 people, banning them from the estate. The process of serving these injunctions began on Friday, April 20, and 10 have been served.

“A serious mistake has been made in the process, and each of the 10 has been given paperwork they should not have had. This includes a log of all calls reporting anti-social behaviour to the east area housing office during March, with names, phone numbers and street or estate names if they were given. This information should not have been released, and we are extremely sorry that, through an error on our part, it has been disclosed.”

Ms Round continued: “The council is in the process of contacting every single person who is on that list – in total 51 people – to offer our apology and any practical support we can give. This includes additional security measures if they request it. We’re working closely with the police, who are putting extra patrols on the estate to reassure residents and deter any further anti-social behaviour.

“This is a breach of data protection rules, and we have reported the matter to the Information Commissioner. At the leader of the council’s instruction, we will also hold a detailed review of our admin processes to safeguard against this ever happening again.

“We are already taking action to tighten our procedures.”

Have you been affected by this council blunder? If so, let us know your thoughts by emailing us on islingtongazette.news@archant.co.uk or calling us on 020 74336240.