Help! Father badly scammed

I am so sorry to hear that. But he's not the only one. My lovely elderly neighbour was also the victim of fraud, she personally went on the first day to Thomas Cook to withdraw £4000 worth of euros, and then to the post office to withdraw £4000 of euros, all of which she then passed on to a man on a bike - the courier. All because someone from the Serious Fraud Office in Manchester had said there was a network of crooked banks operating in our area who were giving out counterfeit notes, and they needed someone who the banks could not possibly suspect to help them out. On the second day she went to Santander and withdrew a further £4000. On the third day she was directed to go to a jeweller to purchase a £28,000 watch. Fortunately the jeweller refused to sell her the watch and said to her firmly, I think you're being scammed. At that point she told the fraudster she had had enough and a few days later she came round to ask us if she could borrow our phone to call the police as she believed the fraudsters were monitoring her phone. Like your father, she cannot believe how stupid she was (her own words not mine). Having led professional lives, I think at that age they want to feel that they can still be of use to society, and maybe this leads them to ignore the usual warning signals. The fraudster was also very proficient at grooming her and playing on her vulnerabilities. When the police came round to talk to her, she was all up for setting up a sting operation, but the police wouldn't have it. Subsequently she spoke to her 2 banks about it, both had warned her there was fraud about and that it would be safer not to take out cash, but if the "Serious Fraud Office" were there to try to pick up on counterfeit notes, then obviously she had to have the cash! The manager of one told her she had been stupid, the other contacted their internal fraud department who said they were not liable but this kindly bank manager suggested informally to her that she might want to contact her solicitors. The police don't have any leads on the fraudsters. The question really is the extent to which the banks owe their clients a duty of care. We've come to the conclusion that it's unlikely we can show the banks were negligent but we're not legal people. In my neighbour's case she wanted to draw a line under it and move on, so we haven't actively pursued it although she will talk about it every now and again. Sorry not to be of more help. But to all those people who posted - how on earth did he fall for it, I can assure them that these are not the only 2 out there who have fallen for it. There are plenty of similar cases in the papers all the time. If any one thinks there is a case to be made for getting some of the money back, I would love to hear about it.