David Lambeth, 40, of Main Road, Wrangle, describes the sequence of events that led him to having only £17 to his name as 'utterly extraordinary'.

This came to a head on Thursday when Mr Lambeth says £2,415 was withdrawn by cheque from his Abbey account, despite him already being in touch with the bank's fraud department concerning another unexpected cheque withdrawal from the Wednesday before.

This earlier withdrawal was for £1,800.21, and itself came as a shock to Mr Lambeth because he had contacted the bank in June after his new cheque book had not arrived and asked them to send another one and cancel this new one.

Mr Lambeth has identified these withdrawals to the cheque book he asked to be cancelled.

When he learnt of this second alleged fraudulent transaction he was, in fact, on the phone to the bank's fraud department.

He said: "I was just shocked, quietly shocked, and then very noisily shocked."

Mr Lambeth had been concerned in June his new cheque book had been sent to the wrong address because at one time the bank had four addresses to his name – including one in the United Aranb Emirates – despite having only lived at one address.

At the time of launching his complaint to Abbey, his bank account had been blocked from use, meaning Mr Lambeth had to take a 58-mile round trip to his nearest branch in Louth with a raft of identification to withdraw money other than by Direct Debit.

"I haven't bought anything in days, I can't. It's almost amusing," Mr Lambeth said.

An Abbey spokesperson said: "Mr Lambeth contacted Abbey regarding two cheque withdrawals from his account, which he believes are fraudulent transactions. One of the cheques bounced before it could debit his account, and Abbey have credited the value of the second cheque £1,800.21 back to Mr Lambeth's account.

"We will continue to keep Mr Lambeth updated on the progress of his complaint."