Santander threatened to close woman’s account after she said Bradford was ‘Curryland’

A Santander bank customer almost had her account shut down because she referred to Bradford as ‘Curryland’ while on the phone to a call centre worker.  Sarah Leigh, 50, had called the bank about her credit card when the bank worker mentioned that he was from Bradford. The mum-of-three referred to the Yorkshire city as ‘curryland’ and mentioned reading how waterways had turned yellow because of the amount of turmeric washing into them.  The call centre worker did not complain at the time but days later Mrs Leigh received a letter from the bank saying she had offended him. Mrs Leigh, who is a magazine sales executive, had made the call on 20 April and had forgotten about it until she received the letter a week later. She subsequently rang up the bank and spoke to an employee, explaining what she had said to their colleague. Santander said it was simply following procedures.