A COUPLE protested with a banner outside a bank to get their £800 cash back.

Thomas Kopec spent a month trying to get the money from Lloyds TSB in Southbourne, Bournemouth, after a cash machine fault.

The bank has now apologised and said the money has been repaid.

On a previous occasion he had to resort to going into the bank, refusing to leave without the cash, until he was told the bank would call the police.

“It should have been me calling the police, they had my money,” said Thomas.

The 40-year-old had tried to take the money from his wife Kim’s Korean account – the machine debited the account but did not pay out the cash.

Lloyds admitted the mistake but then Thomas was the one who had to sort it out – and he said the Korean bank were not told what procedures to follow to resolve the issue.

Thomas said: “I have council tax and utility bills to pay. I just wanted my money.”

A bank spokesman apologised and said the money has now been refunded, adding they regularly monitor their cash machines.

The spokesman said: “Our procedure is for the cardholder to contact their card issuing bank, who will then raise a ‘chargeback’ against us.

“We were also unable to refund the money to Mr Kopec as the account was in his wife’s name.”