BUILDER John Czutkowna? was amazed when his £199 savings were "swallowed up" by the bank - because he hadn't used the account for 18 years. He is now warning other Boltonians to beware. John, of Blackburn Road, Entwistle, only wanted to update his own records and said he was expecting a tidy windfall in interest.

But when he showed up at the Yorkshire Bank on Bradshawgate, staff told him that the account had been transferred - into the Bank's own funds!

John says that he had never received any correspondence from the bank to say that his account had been closed.

He said: "If I had lost my bank details, then I would have nothing to prove the truth. The account number just doesn't exist on their records any more. But luckily, I still have the original bank book."

To add fuel to John's anger, he claims he took an hour off work to solve the problem - only to be told that he was not needed.

"They had specifically asked for me to come down and sort out the problem. But when I got there, they said I was not needed. I had taken time off work especially." John added.

John says he has never forgotten about his money which he saved 18 years ago.

And he said that he would be complaining to the Yorkshire Bank's head office regarding his treatment.

A Yorkshire Bank spokesman said: "It is true that Mr Czutkowna? did present us with his pass book from his account which had not been used for over 18 years.

"We requested that we require a little time to check our records to bring his pass book up to date. We have now checked our computer and we will return the pass book to Mr Czutkowna?.

"We apologise if we did not make our intentions clear and stress that there was never any intention to withhold funds that were rightfully due."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.