Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has admitted he was wrong to publish his account number and
sort
code in a national newspaper after a sum of money was removed from his bank account.
Clarkson published his bank details in an effort to prove that no money could be removed from a bank account
using the numbers as a response to what he saw as an overreaction to the missing government data
discs scandal.
The acerbic motoring journalist also published details suggesting how his address could be found.
But the move backfired when a mystery reader of his column in The Sun used the details to set up a £500 direct
debit to the British Diabetic Association, an organisation that does not require a signature to set up a
direct debit.
'I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake,' admitted Clarkson, who presents Top Gear on the BBC
with Richard Hammond and James May.
The government had previously said that two discs containing personal information for 25m people had been lost
in October
2007.
A sheepish Clarkson has subsequently said of the case: 'Everyone worked themselves into a right old lather
about the mistake but I argued we should all calm down because the details in question are to be found on every
cheque we hand out every day to every Tom, Dick and cash and carry.
'Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in
their eyes until they beg for mercy.'
Read more Clarksonian wit
here
.