BUSINESSMAN Dick Sargent is accusing High Street banks of consistently overcharging customers, writes Chris Koenig.

Mr Sargent, of Audit (UK), Witney, is challenging a statement from the British Bankers' Association that figures revealed this week on ITV's World in Action programme were "junk statistics".

An investigation by the programme of 45 bank statements and mortgages found that 77 per cent of customers had been overcharged.

David Davies, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: "This is an extraordinarily high level of slapdash treatment of customers. People do trust the banks to get their sums right."

Mr Sargent said that the figures tallied largely with his findings. Audit UK has audited 6,000 personal and business accounts since 1992.

He told the Oxford Mail: "In 82.7 per cent of the audits we found that they were wrong in the banks' favour."

Mr Sargent will himself feature on Channel 4's Your Money and Your Life programme, scheduled to be screened on Sunday, August 30.

He will describe how a Thames Valley motorcycle dealer was nearly put out of business by a £40,000 overcharge on his account.

He said that in the six years he had been auditing bank accounts he had found only 18 instances of undercharging by the banks.

The British Bankers' Association dismissed the World in Action survey.

A spokesman said: "These are junk statistics. Banks do make mistakes but on nothing like the scale indicated."

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