Jeremy Clarkson has had an unauthorized direct debit set up in his name after he revealed his account number and sort code in a British newspaper column as a way of rubbishing the consequences of the UK government losing 25 million people's personal details on two computer disks (links to coverage below).
"All you will be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I have never known such a palaver about nothing," he told readers.
But Clarkson admitted he was "wrong and had been punished" after he discovered a reader had used his details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK.
"I opened my bank statement this morning to find out that someone has set up a direct debit which automatically takes £500 from my account," he said in another column.
"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," he added.
The bank cannot find out who did this because of the UK’s Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again.