Bank details of some of Prudential's wealthiest customers have been found in a box abandoned by the M4 near Reading.

The files were found on a roundabout by the Junction 11 slip road after apparently falling unnoticed out of the back of a courier van.

Reports suggest that the files contained details of investments worth around £35 million, including those belonging to three National Lottery winners.

There are fears that criminals may have had access to the details potentially enabling them to hack into customers' accounts.

A Prudential spokesman said: “Protection of our customers’ data is of paramount importance to us and we are contacting them immediately… the key thing is that none of those customers will suffer any financial loss as a result of this."

The incident happened as the files were being taken by a DHL courier from a Pru building in Reading to a secure storage facility in Essex.

The Pru has confirmed that the files have now been returned to the company.

It has stopped using DHL's services pending the results of a full investigation.

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