Capital One's drive to impress on people the benefits of identity theft insurance has had a wonderful boost.

Impressionist Alistair McGowan, who fronts the credit card company's television adverts warning about identity fraud, has had his own identity 'stolen' after throwing important documents in the rubbish.

The Mirror newspaper decided to see if he followed his own advice about carefully disposing of documents with personal details. But it found a still valid debit card with an expiry date of July, his Equity actors' union details and an insurance card in a bin bag left outside his London home.

A quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know somebody who has been a victim of ID fraud which is one of the fastest growing crime in the UK, according to report from Which? released this month. Capital One is the first credit card company in the UK to offer insurance against ID theft and the advert shows how easy this crime is to carry out.

McGowan is seen prowling around someone's house and then rummaging through the dustbin as he says: "With just a few of your personal details, I can apply for anything you can apply for," then proceeds to tell viewers exactly the kind of crimes he could carry out including applying for a second mortgage and emptying their bank accounts.

When told about the 'theft', McGowan is reported to have said: "It is embarrassing and will teach me to be more careful in the future.

He then reiterates the message behind the advert that; "It is very important to destroy material that contains personal information before putting it into a rubbish or recycling bin and I shall be ensuring I do so in the future".