A THIEF stole thousands of pounds from a woman’s account – even though her bank cards had been cancelled after her purse was snatched.

Furious Michelle Holmes was told cashiers at several branches of Lloyds TSB and Nationwide handed over large sums of cash to a thief using the cancelled cards.

Almost £3,000 was taken using her Lloyds card, while £1,500 was stolen from her Nationwide account.

Mrs Holmes, 42, was shopping for shoes for her ten-year-old daughter, Ella, in New Look’s Southend store when he purse was snatched.

She immediately called her husband, who straight away cancelled her cards.

Three days later, Mrs Holmes checked her bank accounts and found thousands were missing.

Each withdrawal had been made face-to-face at a bank counter, with the thief providing a signature. Mrs Holmes, a theatrical agent from Leigh, said: “I got a statement printout and found withdrawals of £1,000, £500 and £300 at different branches including banks in Southend.

“How can someone do this and be given money when a card has been cancelled? What has worried us is never in my history with Lloyds bank have I ever taken out such large sums of money. “You would think two withdrawals of £500 and £300 on the same day would have been noticed. “My confidence in these two major banks is now shot to pieces. I’m flabbergasted that they can hand out money willy-nilly. People need to be aware how unsafe their money is in their own banks.” Lloyds TSB admits the block on Mrs Holmes’s reported stolen card was not properly implemented. Nationwide said it needed more time to investigate the incident. Eleanor Ross, spokesman for Lloyds, apologised and said: “Mrs Holmes’ card was reported to us as stolen on December 3, but, due to an error, the block was not administered correctly. “As soon as we were made aware the block had not taken effect, we corrected the error and refunded the money.” Nationwide spokeswoman Jackie Lawrence said its customers who were victims of fraud had their money fully refunded. She added: “If a customer has reported their card as stolen, the only way money can be withdrawn without the card is by the customer going into a branch and using another form of ID. “On very rare occasions, fraudulent activity takes place and a person posing as the customer uses stolen ID to obtain money.”