A RECRUITMENT company has apologised after a box of confidential documents fell out of the back of a van onto a busy main road.

The files and other papers, which included copies of National Insurance cards, passports and bank accounts of care workers who used to work for CareMed Recruitment, bounced onto the A4 Great West Road, at Gillette Corner, in Osterley, at about 9pm on Monday.

Chronicle news editor Chris Longhurst was at the spot soon after and said: “Clouds of papers were flying everywhere. The combination of the cars and wind scattered them in all directions.

“Cars were swerving to avoid them. It’s lucky there wasn’t an accident. Drivers must have been wondering what on earth was going on.”

Several papers were recovered by the Chronicle to establish what they were.

CareMed Recruitment is based in Bath Road, Hounslow, and is also known as Chalkface Recruitment. When the Chronicle contacted the company it dismissed the incident as an accident and denied negligence had occurred.

Social care manager Chris O’Grady said: “The documents were in a box being transported by van to go into storage. The box fell out of the rear doors, onto the road, but before our member of staff who was following in a car could recover it, a car drove over the box and the contents went across six lanes of traffic.

“We had people at the scene at 11pm and again at 5am the next morning to collect every piece of paper they could.

“Those mentioned in the documents no longer work for us, but we have gone through everything cross-checking with a list of what we know was in the box, to see what is missing.

“We will of course contact anyone we feel needs to be made aware, and will also be seeking an explanation and assurances this won’t happen again from the company we used to transport the box. We apologise for what has happened.”

The papers the Chronicle recovered have been returned to CareMed.

Anyone who used to work for CareMed who is concerned about the security of their personal records or anyone who found any of the documents can contact CareMed on 020 8570 1400.