IT was once known as “the bank that likes to say yes”, but not – it seems – if your TSB account has been cleaned out by hackers and you’re trying to contact their fraud team.

In Charlie Sweeney’s case it took three days of toing and froing between his home in Largs, North Ayrshire, and his local branch after he lost £2500 and couldn’t even access the £20 that hackers had left in his account.

Yesterday morning he turned up at the bank in the town’s Main Street with his sleeping bag and told staff he wasn’t moving until his account was sorted out. Then he sat on the floor holding a sign reading: “TSB do not care about their customers.”

By mid-afternoon, thanks to his persistence and a Facebook campaign orchestrated by his daughter Natalie, the 53-year-old supermarket worker’s account was restored, and he had received a full refund.

“My concern is how many other people are in this position, people unable to feed their children or pay bills – this took three days of my life when they wouldn’t even answer calls from their internal numbers,” said Sweeney.

His troubles started on May 5 when he tried to login to his account but was not recognised and thought something was not right.

He eventually managed to login and change his his security details before calling the TSB, who said what he had done “was fine”.

Four days later, he received a call from someone purporting to be from the bank’s fraud unit, but the caller hung up when Sweeney challenged them.

“So, I phoned the TSB fraud team again and told them about the phone call and reiterated what had happened on the Saturday. I said I was concerned about my account and they said it was ‘safe’.

“When I tried to login on Tuesday it wouldn’t let me in and showed a message saying I had to change my memorable information and password and came up with a phone number, asking if it was my number.

“I knew right away I’d been hacked.”

Sweeney’s account was then suspended, so he walked to his bank after midnight to get a mini-statement from the ATM and found his account had been cleaned out.

He rang the bank’s fraud unit but received no answer until Wednesday.

During his two days in the branch, he and staff tried to contact the TSB fraud team, to no avail, despite them answering a call he made from home, when they told him to verify his identity at his branch.

After being parked in the bank on Wednesday and Thursday, Sweeney said yesterday: “I told the manager I was coming in today with my sleeping bag and I wasn’t going to leave until this was resolved.

“The staff in the branch are fantastic but they’re being left out on a limb. And because of the media involvement, the fraud department phoned me directly and it was resolved within ten seconds.”

Natalie, who masterminded the Facebook feed, wrote yesterday: “Due to all the media attention the fraud department have phoned my dad directly at the branch and money back into the account. Now just to sort out everyone else who has been affected!”

A TSB spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry for the experience Sweeney has had and the distress and inconvenience this has caused him. I am pleased to say we have managed to speak to him and resolve his case – he has been fully refunded.

“We’re very sorry for the issues, including the problems getting through to our telephone services, this customer has experienced.

“We have increased the number of people in our specialist fraud team so we can support our customers, resolve their cases more quickly and help those who might have fallen victim to fraud.”