‘I’ve lost £2,400 and don’t know when I’ll get it back’

MARK Taylor discovered that almost £2,500 had been taken from his Tesco bank account and used for four transactions in Spain.

The computer analyst was contacted on Sunday evening and warned that his current account was at risk, only to discover his balance of around £3,000 had dropped to £57 .73.

An initial payment was made for £9.33, followed by three more substantial transactions of £802.61, £795.27 and £818.26, each to different companies.

Mr Taylor, 6, who had never used his card and kept the account for savings, said the unusual activity should have ‘rung alarm bells’. ‘The account should have been blocked at the first attempt of a withdrawal from overseas,’ he said. ‘For anyone to take that amount of money out in that way and Tesco not find it suspicious is just incredible. It’s as though there’s no security in place to stop it.’

The father of one, from Leeds, said he was now worried about his other bank accounts. He criticised Tesco for failing to advise customers over whether they should change their security details, adding: ‘I use the same pin number for this account as I do others, should they be changed?’

Mr Taylor added: ‘Since Saturday I’ve lost £2, 25. 7 and still have no idea when I’ll get the money back or how it all happened. The silence from Tesco is deafening.’