THEY left him with no money to feed his family for the rest of the month, but when he called to complain their reply was "tough".

Ambulance technician Terry McLennan says he has been left shocked and angry by the treatment from his credit card company after they took too much cash from his account and then said it would take them 14 days to give it back.

When Terry told the Lloyds TSB call centre operator that not having the money for two weeks would leave him broke for the rest of the month, he was told to get an overdraft.

Now, though, after being contacted by the Daily Echo, Lloyds TSB say they are deeply sorry for how Mr McLennan was treated and have offered to give his money back immediately.

Mr McLennan, from Pluto Road in Eastleigh, set up a direct debit with Lloyds TSB in December to pay off his credit card balance at a rate of £70 each month.

But when he went to check his balance after the first withdrawal was due, he found the bank had instead taken £530.02.

The father-of-two called the bank to find out what had happened and quoted their confirmation letter to him about the direct debit, which states that any money taken by mistake will be immediately returned.

He said: "They agreed they owed me the cash, but said it would take up to 14 days to give it back.

"I told them their mistake had left me without any money to feed my family or pay my bills and that I didn't know how I was going to survive. They just said tough and then asked me why I couldn't just set up an overdraft.

"It's left me very angry. It was their mistake so why am I being made to pay for it."

When contacted, a spokesman for Lloyds TSB said they were sorry for what had happened, and added that their call centre operator should have told Mr McLennan that he could have his money back straight away - if not having this would cause him hardship.

She said: "We apologise to Mr McLennan for the inconvenience he has been caused.

"Our call centre should have told him he was entitled to the money back immediately under the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme, and we will be investigating why he was not told this."