Barclays bank apologises to woman after sending her ex-husband details of how she was spending her money - three years after they split

• Ex of Sara Derbyshire, 49 from Chorley, got bank notifications from her account

A woman has received an apology from Barclays bank after it sent her ex-husband details of how she was spending her money three years after their divorce.

Sara Derbyshire, 49, said her ex told her that he had received notifications about her spending on his phone for a whole week.

Ms Derbyshire, from Clayton-le-Woods in Chorley, Lancashire, said that when she and her ex-husband broke up in 2021, she changed their joint account into one just in her name.

But last week, despite none of his details being associated with the account anymore, he received multiple notifications about her spendings and withdrawals.

While Ms Derbyshire and her ex-husband had an amicable split, she told the BBC that she was worried the error could put people fleeing domestic abuse at risk.

Barclays customer Sara Derbyshire (pictured), 49, said her ex told her that he had received notifications about her spending on his phone for a whole week

Barclays (file photo) have apologised to Ms Derbyshire and said the issue has been resolved

She said her ex first thought that his card had been cloned when he saw a notification about a £20 withdrawal, before realising it was from the account he used to share with Ms Derbyshire.

She said this was a ‘massive breach of privacy, security and [General Data Protection Regulation] GDPR’ and also a breach of her ex-husband’s privacy too.

Ms Derbyshire also said she had heard from other women on Twitter/X that others had faced the same issue this week.

She said while she was not in danger, she questioned if this issue had affected ‘people who are vulnerable or victims of domestic violence’.

The customer said the issue must be systemic in some way and that, in her conversations with the bank over several days, Barclays could not figure out what caused the error ‘because my ex-husband is not attached to my account and nor is his phone number’.

She said that because the could not find the cause at the time, it was not corrected and her ex was still getting notifications about her spending.

A Barclays spokesman told the BBC that the issue faced by Ms Derbyshire has been resolved.

He said: ‘We apologise that Ms Derbyshire has experienced this issue and for the distress caused,’ he said.

‘We can confirm that this has been corrected, but we acknowledge that we should have responded more swiftly to her complaint when she raised it with us.’

Read more