Lawyers acting for Bermuda Housing Corporation yesterday issued a writ against the Mid-Ocean News for breach of confidentiality after the newspaper printed the quango's main bank account number.

Lawyer Charles Richardson told The Royal Gazette last night that publication of the confidential details had compromised the account and it was now on fraud alert.

The Royal Gazette's sister newspaper, the Mid-Ocean released the details in a story on December 7 alleging that leaked financial documents backed up allegations that BHC funds had been used to partly pay for the construction of Premier Ewart Brown's Smith's home.

A picture of a cheque for $200,000 from BHC to Bermuda Composite Construction — the firm which built Dr. Brown's mansion and 20 low cost housing units for BHC at Southside — was printed alongside the piece.

Housing Minister David Burch said at a press conference on Thursday he was disappointed that an exact duplicate of a BHC cheque had been printed "without showing any regard to the protection of BHC financial information".

The Minister said the account number and signatures should have been blacked out.

He said that by disclosing them the risk of fraud to BHC and the signatories was greatly increased.

"This action will result in not only inconveniencing numerous clients, as they will have to change their standing order instructions with their banks, but will result in numerous hours by BHC staff having to address this situation," he added.

Mr. Richardson confirmed that a generally endorsed writ had been filed at the Supreme Court, with BHC as the plaintiff and the Mid-Ocean News, its owner Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd and editor Tim Hodgson as the defendants.

The two newspapers are entirely separate operations.

He said BHC took the position that publication of the cheque was "completely inappropriate" and the matter was compounded by the fact that overseas as well as local readers would have seen it in the electronic version of the newspaper.

"It's really, at the end of the day, going to cost the Bermudian taxpayer to rectify that," he said. "Responsible journalism (would have been) blacking out the necessary information.

"Even that wouldn't have cured it but it would have shown there was some effort to be fair to the BHC."

Mid-Ocean News editor Tim Hodgson said: "The Mid-Ocean News stands by its story. The matter has been referred to our lawyers."