Information about Formula One stars Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil fell into the hands of an alleged blackmailer when Sutil's father failed to wipe the hard drive of a PC he had dumped.

Hamilton and Sutil are long-time friends, having raced against each other at several levels before joining the Formula One circuit.

Personal data about the pair, including details of Swiss bank account transactions, was recovered from the hard drive of the dumped PC by a man known only as 'Dieter' who attempted to sell the data to a German magazine for £8,000.

"Whether you are taking the PC down to the rubbish tip, selling it onto a friend, or giving it to charity, it is critical that the data on it is properly overwritten and permanently erased," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos.

Though 'Dieter' was caught and faces five years in prison if found guilty of a charge of blackmail, Cluley warned that identity thieves were on the lookout for any dumped PCs.

"Identity thieves have been known to hang around junkyards picking up old computers just minutes after they have been dropped off, and then using data recovery tools to see if financial records, passwords and other information useful for stealing identities can be unearthed," he said.

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