HBOS bosses are complete and utter bankers for blocking cops in £250million fraud probe
HBOS should do the decent thing and cough up compensation for the small businesses who were fleeced by crooks
FOR ten years a good friend of mine has been bumping along the bottom of life.
A clever and engaging man, he and his family were reduced to handouts with their credit score so poor no landlord would rent them a home.
His downfall was caused by one fatal error.
He did business, as did a host of other small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), through HBOS (the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland).
Unknown to him, the branch at Reading was being run by a crook who was in league with another financial conspirator.
The effect was his business was “financially raped” by the bank and he was left with nothing.
As you will have read, justice finally caught up with them and they received sentences of up to 15 years. Good.
What is not good is the action of HBOS and its owners, Lloyds Banking Group, as this scandal unfolded.
For the last seven years it has blocked the police investigation at every turn and stonewalled the claims for compensation from dozens of SMEs.
The police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley force who cracked this £250million fraud, believes HBOS tried to cover up the crime as bonuses for bank execs might be in danger.
A serious allegation.
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With my friend, I met one hugely bright couple who lost almost everything to the crooks at HBOS but still had their house in Cambridge.
HBOS went to court 22 times — yes 22 times — to have them evicted before a judge said that allegations of fraud made by the couple needed to be investigated and they could stay.
This couple had almost no money to pay their mortgage and had to fight the case themselves as they could not afford to be represented, while HBOS — who caused all their pain and suffering — had barristers coming out of their rear end.
Right now, HBOS is fighting every claim for compensation, including that of my friend.
I heard the other day that there is an old email flying around from somebody still prominent in commercial life, but no longer working for HBOS, talking about destroying a little company.
If somebody would send me that email I will publish it on Friday.
I would be grateful if HBOS, for the first time in years, does the decent thing and pays up.
The customers have suffered enough.
Becks showed his true colours
When the self-involved David Beckham failed to be given a knighthood (due to being involved in the Ingenious tax scheme. Same reason I haven’t been given one!) he sent the following email to his brown-nosing PR:
“Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus taking coke. F***ing joke.”
What a nasty little tosser Beckham has become.
I suspected his poisonous analysis of Ms Jenkins would be hugely unfair– and I was right.
I took a quick look at why Ms Jenkins received her gong and it’s mightily impressive.
Back in 2005 and 2006 she visited our troops in Iraq and Kosovo.
In 2007 she went to Afghanistan and Cyprus.
Then it was Afghanistan again in 2013.
These visits have continued since her OBE, as have her many tours of UK regiments.
She is a trustee of the British Forces Foundation and an Invictus Games ambassador.
Her participation in charity events has literally helped raise millions, without mentioning the pleasure her voice has given to the ten million who have bought her CDs.
And the cocaine? She did it in her early twenties a decade before the gong.
If cocaine was to be the bar, it would be interesting to see what ANY honours list would look like.
Lots of white spaces I imagine.
Anyway quite a CV, wouldn’t you agree David?
Or have you got such a dose of knight fever that you can’t bear anybody else doing well?
Beckham is said to be fearful more emails will emerge with equally damning remarks, which could affect his image and therefore his earnings.
Can’t say I will drop a tear at that.
Being a Morrisons regular for years, I am puzzled at their restriction of two lettuces per customer, as most view anything green as kryptonite.
So I guarantee there will be no lettuce riots, however it would be a different story round my way if they restricted each customer to just three gallons of 2017 Bulgarian prosecco.
Injustice for all
I do hope it’s a poor joke that Sir Brian Leveson, who dreamed up the absurd idea of legal costs being imposed on newspapers even if they win a case, is being considered to be the next Lord Chief Justice.
Putting Leveson at the top of the pile would be a signal that Britain is hostile to free speech.
We would become Turkey without the minarets.
Leveson came to public prominence when he was installed by that creep David Cameron as head of the press standards inquiry.
In public, Cameron would give grand speeches about fighting for a free press but in private it was a different story.
Last week Newsnight reported that Cameron went to Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere and sought to have editor Paul Dacre fired, as his paper’s Brexit campaign was working too well.
Rothermere is used to being leant on by PMs and batted him away.
But the establishment still wants to control what you read.
Right now the number of revelations stopped from being published in The Sun by High Court judges is breathtaking.
And if Leveson gets preferment, the anti-press brigade will have an ally at the very helm of the judiciary.
He must not be given that job.
Cover is blown
The executives who run Halifax home insurance should hang their heads in shame.
They wanted Fred and Judy Calverly to cough up £1,152 for home insurance on their £100,000 two-bed terrace in Tameside, Gtr Manchester – that’s more than the £850 they paid for the house when they bought it in 1962.
Shocked at the price, daughter Wendy went online and switched them to a Hastings policy at £162, a saving of £990.
As I keep saying, loyalty doesn’t pay especially with all policies and energy bills going through the roof.
Even Halifax admits loyalty doesn’t pay, telling Wendy it is the customer’s responsibility to check.
It’s the reason I started and why every TV break is full of GoCompare and MoneySuperMarket ads.
Wendy makes a good point when she says every son and daughter should check their parents’ policies to make sure they are not being ripped off.
There are a lot of Halifaxes out there.
Do send your saving stories to kelvin@ the-sun.co.uk.
My gag about Bamber Gascoigne (last Monday) being so old that I put him in an accumulator with Joan Collins and Martin McGuinness prompted a reader to relay an anecdote told by playwright Alan Bennett.
Bennett was on a train to Leeds when, unhelpfully, a passenger leaned over and revealed he had him in an office sweepstake not making Christmas, adding: “I won a lot on Spike Milligan a few years back.”
Punnies
Car repair shop in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex – Intensive Car Unit.
Sandwich bar in Bradford – Honest Crust.
Loft conversion business in Wolverhampton – Jake And Ladders. Holiday car tours in Kolymbia, Rhodes – Bumpy Rhodes Tours.
Mobile chip van in Cardigan, Ceredigion – The Star Chip Enterprise.
On a skip in Whyteleafe, Surrey – PG Tippers.
Sign outside the Route 1066 café in East Sussex – Get your chips on Route 1066.
Gardener in Leicester – Just A Mow. Plumber in Reading – Drain And Able.
Love the punnies.
Do send more to kelvin@ the-sun.co.uk.