Tom Crawford was in a dispute with Bradford & Bingley, which claimed he owed £43,000 in mortgage payments on his Nottingham home. Judge Godsmark queried the amount demanded by the bank.

Asked where the amount of arrears had come from, Miss Sandells for Bradford & Bingley told the judge that it came from the computer. The judge stated that “as computers should be our slaves and not our masters such a response is not satisfactory.”