Shred-it serves more than 150,000 customers around the world. It was founded in 1988 and, with more than 130 branches on five continents, is now the world's leading on site document destruction company.

It is now turning its attention to the Swindon area and Thames Valley to try to beat crime which is costing the UK more than £1.7bn a year.

The company, which is basically an on-site document shredding service, has been offering free confidential document shredding at this year's B2B Thames Valley event.

"Identity Fraud is the fastest growing crime in the UK," said Nigel Slade, sales manager of Shred-it. "And Thames Valley companies are far from immune.

"At this year's B2B Thames Valley event we have aimed to educate businesses from across the region on how to protect themselves and, just as importantly, their clients, from this growing threat.

"Research by credit reference agency Experian found that 75 per cent of local councils were experiencing bin-raiding by criminals searching through rubbish for personal details in their area.

"Even more worryingly, 80 per cent of these admitted that the problem was getting worse."

Bron Ellis, marketing director of B2B Portfolio Events, was delighted to have the company at the show.

"One of the main aims of the show was to educate visitors about different issues that might affect their business, ones that might have an adverse effect on how they operate.

"Having experts like Shred-it on hand meant that visitors left armed with more knowledge to improve their business.

"Business managers forget that once the information in their rubbish bin has left their building, companies no longer own it and therefore can no longer control where it ends up."

Shred-it gave free demonstrations of one of their state-of-the-art, 15-tonne trucks in action.

Visitors brought a bag of confidential paperwork.

It was then shredded in the truck and a Certificate of Destruction is issued to certify that the material has been securely destroyed.

B2B Thames Valley featured more than 200 top-flight exhibitors, allowing visitors to locate superior products services and partners from banking and finance to sales and marketing, IT and communications to training and HR.