A man has filed a formal complaint against Barclays bank after fraudsters were able to use his identity to open an account.

Mick, who lives south of Hampstead Heath in Camden, told the Ham&High of his shock when he received a Barclays debit card in the post “out of the blue”, despite never having banked with them.

He did not want his full name published in case it invited further fraud attempts, but said he was speaking out to warn others.

“I’m really keen that people watch out for this and, more to the point, I think Barclays bank needs exposing,” he said.

“I just don’t understand why it was so easy. How did they get so far? It really shocked me.”

Mick has filed a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Barclays has admitted that the account was “fraudulent” but defended its security procedures.

“It is evident that [Mick] has been the victim of a very sophisticated and targeted identity theft scam,” a spokesperson said.

Mick, who is in his 80s, denied he could have given personal information to fraudsters by mistake.

“I’m very, very careful with my details,” he said. “The only people that have been given my details recently were Camden Council.”

The debit card arrived in late July, followed by a letter which said, “Welcome to your new current account.”

“I panicked,” said Mick. “My first thought was that somebody had got into my bank account and stripped all the money out.”

He questioned how somebody could open an account in his name without presenting an identity document like a passport.

A spokesperson for Barclays said: “We have every sympathy with the distressing position in which [Mick] finds himself.

“Whilst we cannot comment on individual accounts, Barclays has a robust account opening process and can confirm that all legal and regulatory requirements were fully satisfied.

“Once we had identified the circumstances of the account opening, we took swift action to immediately close the account and inform [Mick] that a CIFAS marker is now in place.

“This means that financial organisations may contact [him] as part of additional checks on any new applications to ensure they are genuine.”

The chain added: “If a customer believes they have been a victim of fraud, we would encourage them to contact their bank immediately and report the case to the police through Action Fraud.”