WHEN Mr Stephen Yuen went with his wife to take out some jewellery from his safe deposit box at HSBC Bank last month, he was stumped by the sight that greeted him.

The building the bank was in, Ocean Building, had been sealed, primed for demolition and redevelopment.

Worse, he found that his safe deposit box had been opened by the bank, and its contents emptied into a sealed plastic bag.

The bank said it had sent out notification letters early last year to inform customers about the termination of the safe box service at its Ocean Building branch.

The letters were sent to addresses in its safe deposit box database, and followed up with phone calls.

But Mr Yuen said he never received the letter, which he later found had been sent to his former home address.

He said that he and his wife did not receive any of the calls the bank said it had made, even though his wife's office number remained unchanged.

'I felt very uncomfortable that they had taken out everything and looked through each item without my knowledge or consent. It's an infringement of my privacy,' said the 50-year-old manager at a computer company.

He has a bank account and a credit card with HSBC.

He said: 'I get bank documents, account statements and my platinum credit card bills from the bank every month at my home address now, so why couldn't they contact me about the safe deposit box?'

A HSBC spokesman said the bank was 'required to break the box in a set procedure which was witnessed and endorsed by our auditors KPMG' after the March 30 deadline was up. The contents were then kept in a safe facility.

'Customers can be assured that the whole process was handled and managed professionally with utmost confidentiality,' the spokesman said.

The bank, though, did not answer The Sunday Times' queries on the number of customers who did not collect their safe deposit items. It also declined to say how else it is trying to contact those who have not collected the contents of their boxes, citing customer confidentiality.

It was previously reported that there were 'a few thousand boxes' at the Ocean Building branch.

Mr Yuen said that he has kept the items in the box since the early 1990s, when he moved to Singapore from Hong Kong. He said the box contained jewellery and some documents but could not remember the exact items. He estimated the total value to be more than $10,000.

Mr Yuen had gone to the Ocean Building branch to take out a diamond ring for his wife to wear during the Chinese New Year.

Lawyer Joy Tan from Wong Partnership said that if valid notice has been given, a bank is entitled to force open a safe deposit box as the lock and box belong to the bank.

But it is also the bank's duty to fully account for the contents of a safe deposit box and one good practice is having an independent auditor present.

HSBC's closure of its safe deposit box operations at Ocean Building made the news last year after some customers became upset. Many thought the notice given - less than two months - was too short.

Mr Yuen, now shopping around for another safe deposit box, wants an explanation from the bank, especially about whether it had tried hard enough to contact him.

'I asked them, did you really try?' he said.

HSBC said it has been in contact with Mr Yuen to resolve the matter.

dawntan@sph.com.sg