Advice needed urgently, please help

Muttonchops_1943

Hi, I'll try and keep this post as precise as possible - I would really appreciate some advice if anybody else has been in my situation.

I had my purse stolen just over a week ago, the purse contained my bank card (Abbey debit card) credit cards and my photo driving licence. Unfortunatley for me, the thief/thieves took £3000 from my abbey account in one afternoon. I understand that 2 transactions were cash point machine and the rest over the counter withdrawal. Firstly, the pin wasn't in my purse. The pin number was my date of birth and as they had my driving licence, it was a lucky guess or as I have since discovered, many other of my friends/work colleagues use their birthdays for pin numbers.

My bank Abbey - have been awful and are treating my like a criminal. My account has been frozen, but this is the worst part. The thieves not only took my wages £1500, but cleared my overdraft as well which was £1500. I have been left with not a single penny and the bank aren't bothered. I asked the Abbey fraud department if they had requested CCTV and the signature slips to which they told me not all of their branches have CCTV - this I find hard to believe. Apparently the signature slips have been requested. I don't know if the PIN number would have been required for over the counter withdrawals as I have never used this service. The thieves took my money from 6 different branches around the Cardiff areas. I was in Cardiff when the theft happened as I was at a work meeting for 2 hours only. I don't live in Wales - in fact I live in the West Midlands which is something else the branches overlooked when allowing the transactions.

The police have been very supportive and believe that I have been a victim of theft. They are investigating and have found Abbey to be obstructive. For example, the police officer asked for the names of the staff who conducted the transactions to which Abbey refused. The police have now made this request official so they will have to co-operate. The police have managed to ascertain that Abbey are refusing to pay me the money back. Whether it is because the PIN was used at cash point machine to get a couple of hundred quid out I don't know - I think they think that I gave it away and allowed my cash to be taken willingly! To add insult to injury, all of my direct debits which co-incide with my salary going into the account have been declined to which Abbey have quickly written to me to say I am being charged firstly for them considering to extend my overdraft (which they refused) and secondly for the fact the bill was returned unpaid.

I am in real financial trouble - no money to pay any bills let alone buy food. There is no way I can afford to lose this and pay Abbey £1500 back on a overdraft as well. Can anybody please advise where I can go to and what steps I can take to prove I am innocent? Abbey just doesn't care what trouble I'm in and the knock on effect this is having on my life. Any advice wold be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

Calchas

Have a look at this. At least it's a start:

http://www.identity-theft.org.uk/who-can-help.html

I "googled" identity theft and there was a lot of information that came up. If you do the same it will at least keep you busy until the experts come along.

Please don't let those experts with a holier than thou attitude upset you too much.

Some of them haven't made a mistake (that they would admit to) in their lives.

Gillianh2

How have you been dealing with this is it by phone or at your local branch. If it is by phone I would go into your local branch and speak to a senior manager and fully explain the situation take along the crime ref number and the name and details of the Police officer dealing with it.
If you have already been into the local branch and havent been able to resolve this then I would contact a Senior Manager at head office and again fully explain the situation and give all ref numbers and Police details that you have.
They should then at least stop any further charges on your account.

bengal-stripe

fletchie wrote: »

The police have been very supportive and believe that I have been a victim of theft. They are investigating and have found Abbey to be obstructive. For example, the police officer asked for the names of the staff who conducted the transactions to which Abbey refused. The police have now made this request official so they will have to co-operate. The police have managed to ascertain that Abbey are refusing to pay me the money back.

The police have given you all that information..............Strange!

Muttonchops_1943

Hi, thanks for the responses...the police have been very helpful which is more than I can say for Abbey. Apparently it is quite common for the police to give their opinion to the banks on fraud cases as to whether they think it is genuine theft or attempted fraud by the account holder. This is how the police officer managed to discover that Abbey wasn't paying me back. The police officer did also say to me that as it was an open investigation Abbey shouldn't yet have come to a decision as to whether I am liable/guilty or not. If needs be, I will use this to appeal the decision. I have also contacted the Ombudsman as Abbey are certainly guilty of allowing more than £500 to leave my account when this is the maximum withdrawal limit in 1 day. One transaction alone was £600...

Basically, the police officer dealing with the investigation has spoken to the fraud department to request the CCTV footage. (which Abbey now say only 1 branch out of the 6 had CCTV) I hope that this will show the scumbag who has done this to me. There is also CCTV footage from the office building where I had visited for the work meeting so again, this should show the person/s. I guess this is some progress, but it still leaves me broke.

I find it amazing that such a large bank does not have any CCTV in all of their branches, surely they all contain large amounts of cash and in this day and age where you can't even speak to someone via a bullet proof screen, this is either stupidity or a blatant advert to be targeted if word ever got out to serious criminals who fancied a larger sum of money. :mad:

olly300

fletchie wrote: »

If needs be, I will use this to appeal the decision. I have also contacted the Ombudsman as Abbey are certainly guilty of allowing more than £500 to leave my account when this is the maximum withdrawal limit in 1 day. One transaction alone was £600...

To contact the ombudsman you need to go through Abbey's complaints procedure. You have to wait 8 weeks to get a final response from Abbey before you can do this.

To speed things up I suggest you complain NOW to Abbey about them letting someone take more than the maximum withdrawal limit out of your account in one day.

To make sure they answer this particular complaint and you can refer it to the ombudsman asap if they are still being obstructive and not treating you properly separate you complaints into more than one complaint.

In other words don't complain about Abbey's obstructiveness to the police at the moment and how they are treating you now. Just mention in your letter that your purse was stolen, you informed them about this asap and they allowed someone to take out more than you are allowed to take out in a day. Point out the terms and conditions of your account that state this. (I've found this thread about Abbey - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=422123 and this

4.1.3 There are maximum daily limits on the amount of cash you can withdraw from your current account using your cheque book or card. When you open your current account, or when you are issued with a card, we will tell you what these limits are. These limits may change and, if they do so, we will notify you of the new limits.

http://abbey.com/csgs/Satellite?c=GSProducto&cid=1127562791480&pagename=Abbey%2FGSProducto%2FGS_ImprimibleVersionProducto
)

At the end of the letter state if you don't receive a satisfactory reply on this particular issue you will refer them to the Financial Ombudsman. Keep a copy of the letter you send and get some proof of posting.

After 8 weeks if they refuse to reply, don't give you a proper response or say you have to wait for them to investigate the rest of your case then refer them straight to the ombudsman.

Regulated institutions don't like being referred to the Ombudsman so normally sort things out before then.