Forensic accountants could be breaching privacy and confidentiality laws unwittingly, accountancy and legal experts at business group pro.manchester, have warned.

Forensic accountants investigating problems ranging from fraud to insolvency rely on 'search orders' issued by judges to access corporate information.

But search orders have yet to keep pace with technological advances, which has resulted in corporate data being stored electronically, such as in hard drives and USB keys, rather than filing cabinets, according to pro.manchester.

Forensic accountants who look at personal information stored electronically could be breaking data protection rules, according to pro.manchester.

Accountants will often be able to see a vast amount of personal data when searching computers and other IT systems. Some of this data may not be covered by the search order.

Christopher Marks, a forensic technology expert at Ernst & Young, said: 'Electronic evidence can be dynamite. The casual nature of email can expose critical evidence in a case, finding the incriminating data is the problem. Simple keyword searches of a hard drive or server just won't do.'

Pro.manchester has called for judges to be educated on how technological advances have changed the nature of evidence gathering for accountants.