Attempted raid at house with NatWest customer data under bed

The woman keeps the customers' details hidden under her bed at her home

A sacked bank worker who keeps the financial details of 1,600 customers hidden under her bed has said her house was targeted in an attempted burglary.

The woman is in a long-running dispute with NatWest over the documents, which have been kept at her home in Southampton for more than 10 years.

She said she immediately felt panicked about what might happen to the data when the two men tried to access her property on the night of 12 February.

Police said they were investigating.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous because she fears being targeted by thieves again, said she was sent home with the data as part of her job selling mortgages.

The woman showed the BBC boxes of correspondence with the bank covering a 15-year period

She was dismissed in 2009 for gross misconduct for failing to give customer information back to the bank, and the two parties have reached a stalemate over the terms of the data's return.

The documents include account details belonging to customers in Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, London, Bristol, Surrey, Essex, Herefordshire and the West Midlands, the woman said.

CCTV footage of the attempted burglary seen by the BBC shows two men wearing balaclavas trying to break into a number of cars on the road before approaching the woman's property.

They spent more than a minute in the porch attempting to gain access via the front door before fleeing.

The woman said it has always been her "biggest fear" that the data - which includes names, sort codes, account numbers and other personal information - would be stolen.

The woman was employed at a number of NatWest branches in Hampshire before working from home

"When I heard them tampering with the front door - it suddenly made it all feel very real," she said.

"To me that's 1,600 people - and I don't know what would happen to them if their details fell into the wrong hands."

Hampshire Constabulary confirmed inquiries were ongoing.

The Information Commissioner's Office had acted as a mediator between the woman and NatWest but said it was no longer involved as it was "satisfied that the potential risk posed to individuals does not warrant further action".

She has previously said that shredding the documents would not have protected her from any potential future legal action and it "wasn't the right thing to do".

New offer

She said this led to an impasse with the bank over the wording of a receipt that would have allowed the documents to be returned.

The bank said the woman had demanded money in exchange for the documents, an allegation she strongly denies.

A new offer from the bank is now on the table but the woman said she was upset it did not include an apology.

A NatWest spokesperson said: "There has been no customer detriment and the bank does not believe that this historical documentation poses any risk to customers.

"The situation could have been resolved at any point in the past decade through the return of the documentation...

"...the bank has now put forward another proposal for the recovery of the documents and is waiting for a response."