AN angry sculptor is threatening to chain himself to the inside of HSBC in Salisbury, unless the bank hands back nearly £2,000 of his money.

Former Salisbury man Jonathan Cox (44), who lives in Broughton, near Stockbridge, said he suffered weeks of sleepless nights after his telephone bank, First Direct, a subsidiary of HSBC, took £1,860 from his account following a cheque scam.

Mr Cox had advertised a car for sale in Free-ads and was contacted by someone abroad who said they were interested in the car and prepared to pay more than double the cost so that they could have it shipped over.

Agreeing that he would send the car to the new owner once the £3,000 cheque had cleared, Mr Cox eagerly waited for payment to arrive.

After receiving the cheque, he paid it into his HSBC branch, in Salisbury, on June 28, and went back three days later to ask the cashier if the cheque had been cleared.

Having had this confirmed, Mr Cox withdrew £1,500 from his account to pay for the car to be shipped via Western Union.

Five days later, he received a letter from First Direct saying the cheque had been returned after it had been found to be fraudulent, and that £1,860 had been debited from his account.

Mr Cox said: "I think it is absolutely dreadful.

"When you go to the bank, you expect them to be looking after your money, and HSBC has obviously allowed this fraud to happen.

"I wasn't in credit with the bank anyway, so I suppose they think it is their money that they want back.

"I was suspicious of this man but, when the bank said the cheque had cleared, I withdrew the cash and didn't have any reason to think there was a problem.

"The fact that the bank has put me through all this stress and allowed the cheque to go through is unbelievable.

"It is not my fault."

Mr Cox has since contacted the police and the financial ombudsman service, to lodge a complaint.

His First Direct account has also been frozen while the matter is investigated.

A spokesperson for the bank said: "People should be wary of receiving payments via cheque from a person they do not know and trust, as cheques can be returned, unpaid, at any time, even after the funds are available in their account.

"Banks tend to credit their customers' accounts with funds from a cheque before they have received them from the bank upon which the cheque was drawn.

"If the payee's bank finds the cheque is fraudulent, it won't pay the sum, and this leaves the victim's bank needing to take back the money that it paid upfront into its customer's account.

"It is in First Direct's terms and conditions, 3.2.1 & 3.5, that we will deduct the amount in question if the cheque is returned unpaid.

"In Mr Cox's case, we disagreed about where liability lay and the matter was referred to the financial ombudsman for independent review.

"We agreed to abide by their decision, which has been found in our favour."