A fraudster stole 30,000 pounds from my elderly mother's bank account, but Santander UK refused compensation

 LONDON – Santander bank refused compensation after a fraudster bilked my elderly mother of 30,000 pounds, a substantial portion of her life savings.

 When asked to make compensation Monika Lee, Monika Lee, Executive Complaints Manager at Santander, claimed there was insufficient data to compensate my mother, Mrs Margaret Phillips, even though the UK police had investigated the fraud under which a fraudster who faked my mother’s signature presented a cheque for 30,000 pounds at a north London branch of Abbey National, subsequently acquired by Santander together with its liabilities. No attempt was made to check the identity of the fraudster.   

 Ms Lee wrote to me “I am sorry for the delay in responding to your complaint. Your concerns have been reviewed at length and I must confirm that our position in respect of your complaint remains unchanged.”

 “The Data Protection Act does not set out any specific minimum or maximum periods for retaining personal data. Instead, it says that personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.”

 “Santander retains customer data for a period of 6 years. As your request dates back to 1998 to 1999, we are unfortunately unable to retrieve this information for you.”

“I realise this response will come as a disappointment, however, it is the only one I can give.”

 “Kind Regards Monika Lee Executive Complaints Manager, Executive & Media Complaints”

  As long ago as August 2000 Mr David Cole of the Investigations Unit of the UK Court of Protection contacted Abbey National to try and recover on my mother's behalf the missing monies that were removed from her account at the Wembley, London, branch of Abbey National that was opened 11.12.98 and closed 30.10.1999. During that period a Mr T. Blake presented cheques on my mother's account to a value of in all at least £25,000 for which he had no claim.

 Abbey National allowed Mr Blake to cash these cheques that had been obtained fraudulently from nurses working with my mother who evidently forged her signature. No documentary proof of the man calling himself Mr Blake was obtained from him as to his identity and as a result when the fraud was discovered there was no way of tracing him. When the fraud was discovered my mother was living in Italy with me.

Although Mr Cole investigated this matter as did the police at the time, Abbey National did not reimburse my mother for her savings lost through the bank's negligence.

As Receiver of my mother's estate I wrote in 2014 to Andy Smith, Santander Press Officer, to ask for this reimbursement to be made. “The failure of Abbey National to do so caused my mother considerable hardship during the last years of her life and also caused hardship

to her children who had to support her out of their own resources as a result,” I noted then.

As a journalist I am sure that Santander would not like to give the impression that it condones or is compicit in negligent treatment of elderly people who are victims of fraud.

  Mr Smith replied to me then that "I have asked our media and executive complaints team to have a look into this case. I am sorry to hear about your experience. Santander does not condone negligent treatment of elderly people who are victims of fraud. We take fraud extremely seriously."

 However Ms Lee took a different approach, writing to me that "Having investigated, I regret to confirm that due to the time elapsed since the claim, we no longer hold the evidence in respect of this matter. We are required to hold

this data for a period of 6 years, which has long elapsed. The only notes remaining are from 2004 when our Fraud Department was contacted by the Public Guardianship Office and yourself regarding this matter.

 "The notes refer to evidence being supplied to the Public Guardianship Office in respect of our position at that time. Given the time which has elapsed, I regret we are unable to conduct any further investigation into this matter and your complaint is out of time. Our position must

therefore remain unchanged."