A UK bank is being threatened with a law suit after a man was repeatedly denied access to phone banking because staff thought he sounded like a woman. After Graham O'Brien's several attempts to conduct bank transactions over the phone with Halifax Bank were unsuccessful, he was told to visit a branch. When he did, he was told that a "suspect person" thought to be a woman had been trying to access his account, which had been suspended. Mr O'Brien, a law lecturer from Leeds, officially complained to the bank. The formal response was: "Having passed our security requirements you were transferred to an operator who garnered the impression the individual accessing your account was female." Mr O'Brien's partner, Julian Achilli, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "Just because he's got a bit of a squeaky voice, why can't they accept that he is who he says he is?" Despite assurances from the bank that the mix-up will not happen again and an apology, Mr O'Brien is considering his legal options. "I feel I have been humiliated and alienated," he said. "There's the patronising way they've spoken to me and there's the humiliation of going into the branch and dealing with it. "Just because a man has a high-pitched voice, does that mean it's a woman? They're labelling it. They're saying, 'You're not who you say you are.'" Ref: Pinknews.co.uk (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 18th September 2007 - 9:35am