Abbey rejected an endowment mis-selling complaint from a former soldier because it deemed that his dangerous profession meant he was willing to accept a high level of investment risk.

Richard Howarth - who reached the rank of sergeant in the Adjutant General's Corps, was a member of the second wave of British troops to serve in Bosnia and completed two tours of duty in Northern Ireland - was told by Abbey that he could not claim compensation for being mis-sold an endowment because his occupation showed he was a risk taker.

Abbey wrote to him saying: "You were in a risky occupation at the time and from this we have concluded the endowment policy was consistent with your attitude towards risk".

Richard took out an endowment with National Provincial, which was taken over by Abbey in 1996, when he bought a home in Nottingham in 1991.

He said: "I was stunned and outraged at having my claim brushed aside in such an insensitive way. They are effectively saying that if I am happy to lose my life for my country, I'm happy not to be able to pay off my mortgage."

Richard, aged 38, left the army in 1994 and is now a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. Following intervention by the Sunday Tele-graph, Abbey has agreed to meet the claim.

Last year Abbey was fined £800,000 by the Financial Services Authority for mishandling endowment complaints. The FSA said the bank had rejected 3,500 complaints between 2001 and 2003 that should have been upheld.

Ian Allison of Brunel Franklin, the claims handler that dealt with Howarth's case, said: "Life companies are employing a wide range of fob-off tactics to avoid paying out compensation but this takes the biscuit."

Ian Villiers, a spokesman for Abbey, said: "It is absolutely wrong to suggest that attitude to investment risk is linked to an individual's choice of profession. We are sorry for what has happened and will now be settling Mr Howarth's case."

Copyright © 2005 First Mortgage Trust