A Brigg man has called for security to be tightened after a bank handed over confidential details belonging to one of its customers.

Kevin Scottorn, 45, of Mill Lane, went to Yorkshire Bank on Scunthorpe's High Street to discuss details of his bank account.

But when the member of staff at the branch could not help him further, they passed on a phone number for him to contact.

The number was scrawled on the back of a scrap piece of paper, but when he got home and called the number, he turned over the paper to find the name, address, phone number, date of birth, account number and sort code of another customer.

Mr Scottorn said: "I was speaking to a member of staff in a private office about my bank charges.

"The member of staff wrote a telephone number for card protection down on a piece of paper.

"When I got home, I rang them and when I looked on the back of the paper I saw the bank details belonging to another customer.

"I tried to contact the man to whom the details belonged and his son said he was going to tell his dad to close down the account straight away.

"When I contacted the bank they wanted me to take the details back straight away but I told head office what had happened.

"Yorkshire Bank suggested they had given the piece of paper to the customer who must have dropped it – but if that was the case then how come the number I needed had been written on the back?"

He added: "I wonder how many times this might have happened before.

"I think it's disgusting. You hear in the news about people's confidential details going astray all the time.

"Surely that piece of paper should have been put in a shredded waste bin – not used as a scrap piece of paper.

"I am concerned that his bank account could have been emptied if the details had fallen into the wrong hands."

A spokesman for Yorkshire Bank said: "We thank the Scunthorpe Telegraph for bringing this to our attention and apologise for what appears to be human error.

"We take customer data handling very seriously and are investigating this matter."