DUBLIN--Four laptop computers stolen from one of Ireland's largest commercial banks contain the unencrypted details of some 10,000 customers, the bank said on Tuesday.

The laptops, belonging to financial advisors for Bank of Ireland Life, were stolen between June and October last year but the country's data protection watchdog was only informed last Friday.

Bank of Ireland Life is an independent company within the bank group that deals with life assurance, pensions, savings and investment products.

Commenting on the delay in reporting the thefts to the regulatory authorities, managing director Brian Forester said internal procedures had not been followed.

"Unfortunately in this situation the procedures were not properly adhered to. The thefts, while they were reported to the Gardai [police], the situation wasn't escalated to the level of management it should have been, through a human error," he said.

Forester told RTE state radio that a detailed internal investigation has been underway since February.

He said the laptops, three of which were stolen from cars and one from a bank branch, had levels of security protection but the details of the customer files were not encrypted.

Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes said his office was investigating what he described as "serious" security lapses.

"The people from the regulatory part of Bank of Ireland say they had only been told about this themselves in the past few weeks which does raise a number of issues," he said.

"Obviously it is a serious issue. The positive is that the Bank of Ireland have told us they are taking measures now to make sure all laptops are encrypted."

Hawkes said the bank had told him they been monitoring the accounts of the customers involved and they "had no evidence of fraud at present."