A SCRAP metal dealer is furious with his bank after an account was closed "unexpectedly" meaning cheques bounced and bills went unpaid.

Owen Hanratty, from Darlington-based Hanratty's skip hire and scrap metal merchants, says the closure of the account by HSBC caused the company to lose the trust of customers and suppliers built up over 75 years.

In response, the bank said it had made repeated requests for a small number of customers to provide information and warned clients that it intended to close their accounts if they could not provide the required documents.

The problem occurred because Mr Hanratty's brother and business partner, John, does not have any identification acceptable to the bank.

Despite the company banking with the firm for 32 years, HSBC wrote to the brothers earlier this year asking the pair to provide ID.

While Owen Hanratty, 68, was able to show his passport, John Hanratty, 58, had no documents acceptable to HSBC.

Owen Hanratty said he checked the company's accounts on-line last week, only to find one had been closed.

Questioning why the company needed to see ID from the long-standing customers in the first place, the scrap man said: "We received two letters from the bank (about the ID problem) and there has been no hinting what they were going to do - they just did it.

"We have been with the bank for 32 years without any overdraft or any problems at all.

"Their customer service is absolutely rubbish - we have lost the trust of our suppliers and our customers. We are telling people what they have done but the trust is gone."

In response, HSBC said it was strengthening its procedures to prevent people from using its products and services to commit or conceal financial crime.

The bank said it was asking existing customers to provide additional information about themselves and their businesses to make sure its records were up-to-date and accurate.

A spokesman added: "While most business customers have returned the requested enhanced due diligence, a small population of customers have not yet done so, or have submitted incomplete information.

"Unfortunately we have recently had to notify a small number of business customers that we intend to close their accounts because they have not supplied all of the information that we have asked them for.

"In these cases we made repeated requests for the information, by letter and telephone, over a period of more than six months.”

Hanratty's, which is based in the town's Wooler Street, began operating in 1939.