DOZENS of confidential documents, including details of poll tax defaulters and people who served prison sentences, have been discovered by children playing on an industrial estate in Stirlingshire.

Stirling Council has launched an investigation after bundles of sensitive files were found on Bandeath Industrial Estate at Throsk, where they were stored in a former munitions warehouse.

Police said a break-in had been discovered on Monday morning, and inquiries were continuing. The documents list poll tax defaulters in Cowie, Banknock, and Denny, and details of the former Central Regional Council's efforts to collect its debts, including the deployment of sheriff officers.

Morag McAleese, whose seven-year-old son Christopher brought the papers home, has lodged a complaint after finding the names of her late parents and brother listed among the debtors.