For George Bates it was just another conversation with a call-centre worker in some far-flung part of the globe.

Little did the 23-year-old know that it would lead to him being unable to access his bank account, his debit card being swallowed, direct debits and overdraft being cancelled and a string of charges accruing to his account.

The unmarried carpenter was locked out of his Abbey bank account after a disgruntled Indian call-centre operator changed his identification to that of a Ugandan divorcee 10 years his senior.

Bates, from Bristol, discovered the problem when he called the bank and gave his usual identification details, but was told they did not match his records.

An autoteller later swallowed his cash card. Then he discovered that his overdraft and six direct debits totalling £750 had been cancelled — landing him with £60 in charges.

Abbey has refunded the costs Bates incurred because of the error and has offered £200 in compensation.

Bates, though, believes he was the victim of revenge after he gave the call-centre worker the lowest scores in a customer-satisfaction questionnaire.

“This arrogant phone operator has obviously seen that I’ve given him bad feedback and decided to change all my details in revenge,” he said.

“I rang up and I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. He was rude, arrogant and very pushy. He was really unhelpful, but he had the cheek to pester me to give him a good rating.

“When I heard my details had been changed to a Ugandan I was terrified my account had been emptied by somebody else and I’d never have my money back.

“His spiteful actions have caused me a massive inconvenience and I’ve changed banks now because I’m scared he could still access my account.”

Abbey said it had “fully investigated” the incident, but refused to confirm whether any disciplinary action was taken against its staff. The bank has two call centres in India and five in Britain.

Abbey is one of the few high-street banks to use overseas call centres. Lloyds TSB, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and its NatWest subsidiary all said they have call centres only in the UK for British banking customers. HSBC has centres in Britain, Malta, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Abbey said: “An error occurred on Mr Bates’s account. We apologise for this and have returned his account to the correct position and compensated him.”

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