Banks are becoming increasingly reluctant to help fraud victims as figures reveal that identity theft has more than doubled over the past five years.

Mark Radin of Bank Charge Auditors (BCA), which helps fraud victims and deals with about three complaints a week, said in the past five years the number of cases where banks had refused to help or put pressure on the victims to prove their innocence had nearly doubled from 50 per cent to 90 per cent. “Banks are becoming increasingly reluctant to satisfactorily address complaints based on fraud,” he said. “They have a knee-jerk reaction, saying it’s not their fault.”

In one case, NatWest has refused to pay £115,000 stolen from a businessman, despite evidence that the bank was negligent in checking fraudulent details.

Identity theft costs the British economy £1.7 billion a year and is one of the fastest-growing crimes, according to government figures. The number of cases has risen from 22,520 in 2000 to 56,200 last year, according to Cifas, the UK’s fraud-prevention service.

Malcolm Lomax, 75, whose family has run Sprowston Joinery in Rackheath, Norwich, for 71 years, had £116,500 stolen by an employee three years ago. He used Lomax’s name but put false account numbers on payment instructions faxed from Sprowston Joinery to NatWest. Since the discovery of the thefts and the jailing of the employee, Lomax has been trying to recoup the money from NatWest, which he said should be at least partly liable.

After lengthy negotiations, NatWest offered Lomax £58,250 without admission of liability in April last year.

However, when Norwich North MP Ian Gibson wrote to NatWest asking for a meeting to discuss the bank’s duty of care, that offer was withdrawn. Gibson has now written to the Treasury to pursue the case.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), the trade association for banks, said: “The name on a payment instruction is the primary identifier of the intended beneficiary of a payment. Therefore, in the event of a discrepancy between the name and the account number, the bank has a duty of care to check before applying the debit or credit to the account.”

NatWest declined to comment ahead of the case coming to court.

John Sims of Chubb, a security specialist offering ID theft cover, said it could cost victims an average of £10,000. “Costs like legal fees, credit-rating checks, earnings you may lose, and even hiring a private investigator, add to the cost,” he said.

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Banks claim they still cover the majority of cases where customers suffer losses as a result of fraud, but it is up to individuals to prove who they say they are. This takes an average of 300 hours’ work before people get their money back while it can take up to 450 days to discover they are victims, says the credit-reference firm Experian.