A bank is being threatened with a lawsuit after a Leeds man was repeatedly denied access to phone banking because staff thought he sounded like a woman.

Graham O’Brien, 29, is a customer with the Halifax Bank and after several attempts to conduct transactions over the phone were unsuccessful, he was told to visit a branch.

When he did, he was told that a 'suspect person’ thought to be a woman had been trying to access his account, which had been suspended. O’Brien, a law lecturer, officially complained to the bank, who admitted in writing that:

Having passed our security requirements you were transferred to an operator who garnered the impression the individual accessing your account was female.’

O’Brien’s partner said, 'Just because he’s got a bit of a squeaky voice, why can’t they accept that he is who he says he is?’

Despite assurances from the bank that the mix-up will not happen again and an apology, O’Brien is considering his legal options.

I feel I have been humiliated and alienated,’ he said. 'There’s the patronising way they’ve spoken to me and there’s the humiliation of going into the branch and dealing with it.