A man who was stranded thousands of miles from home has said he is now homeless in Brighton because of bank bureaucracy.

Stephen Thomas, 48, of Brighton, was stuck in the Dominican Republic when Santander froze his account after fraudsters tried to steal from his £93,000 savings.

The bank told him he would have to fly back to England to prove his identity before he would be allowed access to his money. But without any funds he could not buy a plane ticket home.

After three months of scrimping, saving and borrowing, Mr Thomas has managed to get back to Brighton, but now the bank will not let him at his money until he gets his stolen passport replaced.

He now faces the same Catch 22 situation again - as he cannot get to London to get a new passport without any money and faces sleeping rough on the city’s streets.

He said: “Because of Santander I was stranded in the Dominican Republic and now I'm stranded in my own town.

“They can tell me I've got at least £30,000 still in my account but they won't let me touch it.

“I was stuck there for three months. I flew into Gatwick at 6am on Monday and at 9am was waiting outside my branch waiting for them to open.

“I showed them a copy of my original passport and the emergency passport I was issued to get home and they were satisfied with my identity enough to give me £500, but I can't get an appointment at the passport office until next Wednesday and that won't last until then.

“Now I have £5 in my pocket and nowhere to go.

“I arrived with just a t-shirt on my back and £300 shoes on my feet. I'm a tramp in Gucci shoes.

“The banks are supposed to look after my money, but all the security measures have not stopped the fraud on my account, just made life very difficult.”

A spokesman for Santander said: “The security of customer accounts is a top priority for us, and we have done all that we can to help, including temporarily lifting the block on the account and providing £500 to cover the costs of getting a new passport and other identification.

“Without formal identification, we are unable to release any further funds from this account.”