A COUPLE have spoken of their anger after confidential job application details were published on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s website by mistake.

Jacqueline Perrelet, 47, from Farnborough, discovered the blunder after conducting an Internet search of her name and spotting it on a spreadsheet of more than 2,000 applicants for council jobs.

She said: “I was surprised to see my name and those of others who had gone for the jobs.”

Now, the Information Commissioner is investigating whether the council has breached the Data Protection Act.

Mrs Perrelet has already suffered one data protection breach at the hands of the council. Last year, when she lived in Basingstoke, the council sent a summons to the wrong address and she was convicted of benefit fraud in her absence.

The conviction was rescinded when the breach came to light and she was cleared at another hearing.

Mrs Perrelet and her husband David, 50, have now spoken of the “devastation” that ordeal caused and their “shock” at the latest blunder.

Mrs Perrelet, a South Farnborough Junior School governor, said: “I was really angry because, even after what happened to me last time, they were still being negligent.”

The list on the council website showed who had applied for what posts in the period 2005 to 2007. The spreadsheet was part of a report looking at various recruitment advertising methods.

But Mrs Perrelet claimed the list would have been easily accessible to anyone doing a web search on a person or employee.

Mr Perrelet said he found out “to his horror” that a former business partner was one of those who made an application. He said: “The council should be ashamed of themselves – it is an absolute scandal.”

Borough council chief executive Tony Curtis said it was unlikely anyone else had seen the list because the matter had only been brought to the council’s attention by Mr and Mrs Perrelet.

The list has been taken down and measures put in place to stop the mistake from happening again.

Mr Curtis added: “We have worked with, and taken advice from, the Information Commissioner’s Office as to the best way to proceed.

“We feel that the impact on those concerned is likely to be very limited and therefore notifying them is likely to cause unnecessary alarm.”

The council would seek to resolve any issues involving Mr and Mrs Perrelet, said Mr Curtis.

The Information Commissioner’s Office would not confirm when it would reach a decision date on the possible breach.