A dad was forced to cancel his Bank Holiday weekend plans with his children and has seen a family holiday to the USA go up in smoke after £1,000,000 was taken from his Barclays accounts.

Darren Edwards, 41, was in the drive thru queue of McDonalds on Tuesday (April 25), when his card was declined four times.

After paying with cash, Darren logged into his Barclays mobile banking app and discovered two of his accounts were suddenly £500,000 in the red, which left him in a state of shock.

It's been more than a week since Darren's money was taken and says he and his partner are struggling to provide for their sons, aged seven and nine. 

He thinks either his account has been hacked or there has been some sort of transaction error but has been unable to get an answer from Barclays.

It follows warnings from Which? some banks’ websites and apps are missing security protections, potentially leaving “open doors” for scammers.

The Bolton News: Darren's online banking shows his both his accounts overdrawn by £500,000Darren's online banking shows his both his accounts overdrawn by £500,000 (Image: Darren Edwards)

Speaking on the horrifying experience, Darren said: “We had plans to take the kids away to Blackpool over the weekend but we couldn’t do that.

"We’ve been saving up for a holiday to America in July and had the money for the flights in the account, waiting for a good deal before we book, but we can’t do that anymore.

"Everything is just up in the air at the minute.

“I had £40 in cash left but that’s obviously gone now because we have to do a food shop so I’m just borrowing money from family and friends.

“It’s a shock that everything’s gone. It ruined the bank holiday for the family and put a strain on everything else.

“We’re obviously worried about direct debits getting missed as well and we can’t keep relying on other people for money.”

Darren said he was on the phone to Barclays customer service for some time, and went into the Burnley branch on Wednesday, but they were unable to provide any information and have ‘left him in the dark’.

He said: “I’ve tried ringing the bank but the woman couldn’t tell me anything, no one would explain what was happening.

“I went to the bank and was in there for some time but they said the same.

"I said, ‘what am I going to do for food and money?’ but they still wouldn’t tell be anything. I don’t have an overdraft so I don’t know how this can happen.

“I did a bit of research on this and found out that if something like this happens the bank is supposed to notify you straight away but they didn’t even do that. I only found out because of my card getting declined."

Barclays was asked to provide a statement on how £1 million was able to be withdrawn from Darren’s accounts and why he was not immediately notified when it happened.

Responding to this, a spokesperson for Barclays said: “Barclays is complying with its legal and regulatory obligations.

"We are unable to share any further information."