A privacy watchdog has uncovered a series of data security breaches at Kent councils.

Big Brother Watch found confidential or sensitive information had not been handled properly at the county council on five occasions in the three years from April 2011.

Four of the incidents resulted in a staff member being given a warning, and one ended with a resignation.

The most serious involved a worker who leaked details of a disciplinary case - leading to them stepping down.

Other breaches include a former employee who kept adoption files in their home after they had left KCC, and another worker who sent confidential information via email.

"This raises the question of how seriously local councils take protecting the privacy of the public..." - Emma Carr, Big Brother Watch

In a separate incident, a handbag containing a notebook with information about "service users" was left in a public place.

Another staff member was given a final warning after being caught accessing someone's records for their own personal use.

Elsewhere, at Medway Council, eight breaches of the Data Protection Act were uncovered.

Information had not been properly provided where it should have been and in two of these eight circumstances an employee was disciplined internally. No resignations or convictions were brought in either case.

In the other six instances, no disciplinary action was taken.

The breaches were revealed in a report by Big Brother Watch called A Breach of Trust: How Local Councils Commit Four Data Breaches Every Day.

The campaign group sent freedom of information requests to local authorities across the country.

The research revealed there had been a total of 4,236 data breaches - 658 of which involved children's information - resulting in 39 resignations, 50 dismissals and one court case.

The highest number of breaches occurred at Brighton and Hove City Council, with 190 incidents.

The group says the report shows local authorities cannot be trusted with our personal information, and is calling for better training, reporting procedures and harsher penalties for data breaches.

Big Brother Watch's director Emma Carr said: "Despite local councils being trusted with increasing amounts of our personal data, this report highlights that they are simply not able to say it is safe with them.

"With only a tiny fraction of staff being disciplined or dismissed, this raises the question of how seriously local councils take protecting the privacy of the public."

A spokesman from Medway Council said: "Given the huge volume of data we handle, breaches are rare and the cases highlighted include an instance where human error saw a letter being sent to someone who had an unusually similar name to the intended recipient.

"We will always carry out investigations and reviews immediately and ensure processes are tightened if breaches happen. As a result no breaches have occurred in the last 12 months."

Both Kent County Council have been approached for a comment.