NORTH-EAST driving instructors are being targeted by a bogus data protection agency which is attempting to intimidate them into paying for its services.

The letters warn recipients they are not registered under the Data Protection Act and that failure to comply constitutes a criminal offence, liable to a large fine.

The letters, from an organisation in Sheffield calling itself Data Protection Agency Services, then ask people to return a form, along with a £95 fee.

One driving instructor, based in Newton Aycliffe County Durham, even received a letter telling him he had been fined £5,000 for not registering.

But according to Durham County Council's trading standards department, driving instructors who do not employ staff are exempt from signing up to the Data Protection Act - and even if they did have to, it would cost only £35.

A Trading Standards spokesman said other companies have been targeted in this way, which has resulted in them receiving hundreds of complaints.

One driving instructor Brian Poole, from Simpasture School of Motoring, in Newton Aycliffe, said he became suspicious of the official-looking document when he saw the return envelope was marked urgent, but had a second class stamp on it.

He then found there was no contact number for the agency.

He said: "The letter was addressed to me, but when I contacted the Driving Instructors' Association, I found that quite a few other driving instructors in the area had received them. One even had a demand for £5,000 because they said he hadn't paid the fee."

The Bishop Auckland branch of the Driving Instructors' Association is gathering letters from its members to send to the Office of Fair Trading, which plans to take out High Court injunctions against the people behind the scam.

Another driving instructor, Ian Brown, based in Chester-le-Street, said the documents were very convincing.

He said: "I was a bit worried when I received the letter, so I went to Citizens Advice to check it out and they confirmed it was bogus."

Trading Standards is urging anyone who receives such a letter to send it to them at County Hall, Durham.

A spokesman for the department said: "It would seem that they might be buying up mailing lists of particular categories of businesses. This is the latest category of organisations to be targeted in this way and we have advised people in the past to be wary of this."