Abbey/Santander - my stolen cash and the inside job

Muttonchops_1943

Hi,

I'll try and keep my story brief -

May 1st, 2008 - I had my purse stolen from an office I was visiting for a meeting. It happened in Wales - I live in Birmingham.

By the time I had driven home, £3,000 had been taken from account from 6 different branches of Abbey, mostly over the counter transactions and a couple of cash withdrawals.

Now, to add insult to injury, I had a limit on counter withdrawals - even I couldn't turn up at my local branch and effectively take that sum of money out without notice.

It took 3 weeks for Abbey to refund some of my money. The cashpoint machine withdrawals were never given back to me. Abbey stated I must have given my pin number out or left in my purse despite me having the same pin number for 10 years and would have no need to carry it with me. I lost around £250 which Abbey refused to refund.

More amazingly, there was no CCTV of the offender/s as apparently none of the cameras were working that day. In any of the 6 branches that they visited.

Out of the blue last week, I had a call from the police to say they wished to interview me for a statement. A person has recently been arrested for the offence and they have said they were working for Abbey at the time. I'm told Abbey have been informed.

Do i have any redress to reclaim the money they never returned to me? When I complained at the time, they gave me £50 as a way of admitting that the over the counter withdrawals should never have been allowed. I'm really angry over this - I had my account frozen, I was treated horribly by Abbey despite being a customer for some 20 odd years and now I find it was an inside job?

Any ideas what to do now?

Many thanks

opinions4u

Complain to them again.

Then escalalate to the FOS if you are not happy with their response.

Muttonchops_1943

I'm just ringing the Banking Ombudsman to see what they say with regards to the timescales - this happened 4 years ago so I'm not sure if Abbey would re-open my complaint.

Muttonchops_1943

Banking Ombudsman don't think they can help - 'its a civil matter' and Abbey can't be held responsible for the actions of its employees.

How can it be a civil matter when an Abbey employee was able to access my money and remove the over the counter withdrawal limts? I trust my bank to ensure safeguards are in place to protect my money from fraud.

Surely I must have some redress here?

agrinnall

The ATM withdrawals must have been done with a PIN so I doubt if you will ever get that money back - the only reasonable explanation is that your PIN was in your purse, any other explanation requires a series of incredible coincidences. You can certainly try to push Santander on recovering anything that was taken over the counter, or you could take out a civil action against the person responsible.

Mrs_Ryan

The only other thing I can think of is the person requested a PIN reminder and intercepted it at point of printing before it got sent out which would explain the withdrawals with PIN. When you have access to internal systems I suppose anything is possible...

pmduk

I'd ask Santander to reopen the complaint on the basis that the new evidence proves you weren't responsible. If they refuse take the matter to the Ombudsman to be decided formally. I'd also be contacting journalists at say, the Daily Mail. They have a good track record of exposing Santander's shabby tricks. I suspect they'd love this story. Incidentally don't forget to ask for your lost interest.

alanq

agrinnall wrote: »

The ATM withdrawals must have been done with a PIN ...

Not necessarily. Hardware to get transactions approved without having the PIN checked has been demonstrated.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1614798/How-thieves-bypass-bank-card-Pins.html

Under the 2009 regulations the burden of proof is on the bank. So if the event occurred more recently the £250 would have to be refunded unless fraud could be proved.

"8.108 If the payment service provider can show that the payer has acted fraudulently, or has intentionally, or with gross negligence, not complied with their obligations regarding the security of the payment instrument, the payer will be liable for all losses. To avoid doubt, it is not sufficient for the payment service provider to assert that the customer “must have” divulged the personalised security features of the payment instrument, and to effectively require the customer to prove that he did not. The burden of proof lies with the payment service provider and if a claim that a transaction is unauthorised is rejected, the rejection must be supported by sufficient evidence to prove that the customer is guilty of fraud, gross negligence or intentional breach and the reason for the rejection must be explained to the customer."

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/PSD_approach.pdf

Unfortunately these rules won't apply to events in 2008.

opinions4u

fletchie wrote: »

Banking Ombudsman don't think they can help - 'its a civil matter'

Sounds like the criminal act of theft is involved.

and Abbey can't be held responsible for the actions of its employees.

Yes they can. And they will make good fraud losses where they believe the cardholder has not been negligent.

How can it be a civil matter when an Abbey employee was able to access my money and remove the over the counter withdrawal limts? I trust my bank to ensure safeguards are in place to protect my money from fraud.

Surely I must have some redress here?

The FOS contact was talking garbage.

Complain again and take it from there.

Ben8282

If the police are involved then it is a criminal and not a civil matter. If the police want a witness statement from you, ask the police what to do about recovering the funds which the accused stole from you. Perhaps ask the police to get in touch with Santander and ask them what assistance they are prepared to provide to the witness who will help convict their (presumably former) employee who was stealing from their customers during the course of his employment.

Muttonchops_1943

I'm still waiting for the police to call me back.

I can categorically state, my PIN was not in my purse and nor had it been for the last 10 years plus of having the same pin number. For starters, I have changed my purse a number of times and it would be a miracle for any bit of paper to survive for that long. Besides, I know it wasn't ever, ever in there.

Abbey were convinced I had given the PIN out which I think was done to try and deflect their negligence when actually it was they who allowed person/s known or unknown to withdraw every penny I had. What still amazes me is that I would have been unable to have walked into 6 local branches where I live and do those over the counter transactions and effectively go over the £500 counter limit which was in place, so how was the multiple transactions allowed to take place?