A MAN has been left for several days with no money in his bank account — after a Tesco error meant he was charged three times for a television.

Alex Smith was charged £499 three times when he tried to purchase a new 65in television at Ryde Tesco Extra on Friday, but the store said his payment hadn't gone through so he left empty handed.

His card then declined, so he had to go to his bank — Nat West — to find out what the problem was.

Despite Tesco saying the card payment hadn't worked, it turned out Alex had three pending charges in his bank account, totalling nearly £1,500, leaving him with no further money to spend — and no television.

The bank told Alex, Tesco would have to cancel the payments. By Wednesday evening, the matter still hadn't been resolved.

Tesco told the County Press: "Due to a technical error some customer card payments have been authorised more than once.

"We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we want to reassure affected customers that they will only pay for their purchases once and any duplicate transactions will be reversed.”

Alex was advised to go back to customer services.

Consumer website MoneySavingExpert has warned of the problem, which Tesco has acknowledged and has taken steps to rectify.

UPDATE: This morning (Thursday), Alex said: "I just wanted to thank the County Press because the money is back in my bank as of this morning, and without the press digging into this on my behalf this week, I think it would have taken a lot longer."