AN ISRAELI man has accused a Bromsgrove travel agent of anti-Semitism after they refused to authorise a money transfer.

Leonid Merzon, who has dual Russian and Israeli nationality, was in Bromsgrove visiting his son, a student at Bromsgrove School, when he attempted to pick up money from the High Street branch of Going Places.

The shop acts as an agent for Western Union money transfers.

Mr Merzon claims he was not allowed to pick up his money after he showed staff his Israeli passport.

"The employee of Going Places refused to recognise the passport as sufficient identification on the grounds she had never seen a passport like it before, and couldn't know if it was fake."

He added: "I emphasised to the employee the passport was stamped by the UK Immigration Service at Heathrow Airport only four days earlier."

Mr Merzon returned the following day with his Russian passport but this still failed to convince the employee.

"This was not a mistake or misunderstanding on their part but rather a political statement: an Israeli national passport was no document at all," he claimed

A Going Places spokeswoman said: "We are sorry that on this occasion we were unable to help Mr Merzon with his request and our staff declined the transaction, while following Western Union instructions and standard operating procedure.

"Our doors are always open to everyone from all cultures and nationalities and each year this store successfully handles over 500 Western Union world-wide transactions, and this is the first time they have ever had an issue with a transaction being declined."

Sobia Rahman, the chief operations officer of Western Union, said: "We take all complaints very seriously and have responded to Mr Merzon. We have forwarded our concerns to the Going Places branch involved."