A BANK blunder has left a Limekilns couple nearly £3,000 out of pocket.

Shocked Sue and Chris Shone are still waiting for money to be returned after a cheque mix-up at the Dunfermline High Street branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

They have had to turn to savings to pay bills and Sue said they are “at the end of their tether” with the long-running saga.

They had written a cheque for £86.40 to a West Fife company just before Christmas but were horrified when they got a message on January 4 from their own bank, Santander, to say they were overdrawn just days after payday.

After an investigation, it came to light that their cheque was paid in at the RBS branch by the company along with another cheque for £3050.20.

“We had to pay £4 to get a copy of the cheque from our bank, Santander, and we could see the cheque number was correct but the amount taken was the wrong amount,” said Sue. 

“It seems like someone got the cheques mixed up. I cannot tell you how. I can’t understand how the systems would allow this. I was supposed to be paying for my grandson’s birthday party at the weekend but had to cancel that. 

“We are both at the end of our tether. Whenever things are happening, simple things, the default is to become emotional or angry because we have no capacity left for rational thought.

“January was a five-week month so we had to wait five weeks to get paid and then we were overdrawn within two days. We are having to go into our savings to pay bills. We have got building work going on and we need to pay the builders. 

“I appreciate people make mistakes but it is taking so long to fix and no-one is taking responsibility for it. There just seems to be no end in sight. It is the first thing I worry about when I wake up and the last thing I think of at night.”

A Royal Bank spokesperson said efforts were being made to rectify the situation. 

“We understand that this has been a very distressing experience for Mrs Shone, and we sympathise with her,” said the spokesperson.

“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and working with our cheque processing partners and Mrs Shone’s bank and the other bank involved to expedite the investigation and to ensure that no such errors happen again.”