ABBEY, the bank at the centre of a Spanish takeover deal, issued thousands of incorrect renewal notices to its home insurance customers after encountering difficulties in transferring their details to its new computer system.

Frances Kelly, an author’s agent from Kingston upon Thames, was astounded to discover that the “statement of facts” that came with her insurance renewal documents was riddled with errors.

The statement of facts outlines the information that the insurer holds about the policyholder. It forms part of the contract between the insurer and the policyholder and if any of the details are incorrect, the insurer can refuse to pay out on a claim.

Among the mistakes on her statement, Ms Kelly’s date of birth was given as January 1, 1900, making her 104 years old. The age of her house was out by 70 years, the number of bedrooms was given as three instead of two and the roof was listed as tile rather than slate. It also incorrectly said that she had neither an alarm nor smoke detectors.

Ms Kelly’s assumption that this was a one-off mistake on Abbey’s part could not have been more mistaken. When questioned, the bank admitted that it had purposely sent out thousands of incorrect documents to Abbey customers. The bank’s new computer system requires information that the bank does not hold on some of its long-standing customers.

Abbey telephoned some policyholders to ask for more information. To others, however, it sent renewal documents with incorrect “default” information, in the hope that the customer would notice that the details were wrong and ring the bank with the right information.

Ms Kelly, who has been an Abbey insurance customer for 19 years, is furious that it issued her with a legal document that it knew was full of errors. “I can’t believe that a reasonable company would do something so appalling. Many people file away these documents without looking at them properly and if in ten or fifteen years it came time to claim, I think it would be very difficult to prove that it was Abbey’s mistake,” she said.

An Abbey spokeswoman was adamant that no customers were disadvantaged by the bank’s decision to issue incorrect renewal notices. She said that the bank would honour claims made by the policyholders affected.

“We appreciate that the decision to record default information was not the most appropriate,” she said. “This procedure is now being reviewed.”

CHRISTINE SEIB