Barclays bank sorry after sharing woman's spending with her ex

Sara Derbyshire says the error could have put vulnerable people at risk

Barclays bank has apologised to a woman after she found it was sending her ex-husband information about what she was spending.

Sara Derbyshire, from Clayton-le-Woods in Chorley, Lancashire, said he had alerted her to the problem.

It meant her former husband received notifications even though they had not had a joint account for three years.

She said while they were on good terms, she worried the error could put at risk people fleeing abuse.

The 49-year-old said when she parted with her ex-husband in 2021 she changed their joint account to her sole account.

"He thought his card had been cloned when he saw a withdrawal for £20 but then realised it was our old account," she said.

She described the problem as "a massive breach of privacy, security and [General Data Protection Regulation] GDPR", and a breach of her ex-husband's GDPR, too.

Ms Derbyshire said she had heard from other people on the social media platform X that two other women and a man had had the same problem.

"I'm not in danger but that's not the point. What about people who are vulnerable or victims of domestic violence?"

"There is clearly some kind of system issue, but when I have spoken to Barclays over the last couple of days they [said they] can't work out what it is because my ex-husband is not attached to my account and nor is his phone number," she said.

"Unfortunately, because they can't find out what the issue is they are unable at this point to stop it."

A Barclays spokesman said the issue had now been resolved.

"We apologise that Ms Derbyshire has experienced this issue and for the distress caused," he said.

"We can confirm that this has been corrected, but we acknowledge that we should have responded more swiftly to her complaint when she raised it with us."