Tony Hawkins, of Llandysul, Ceredigion, was stunned to find that more than 3,000 pounds had been taken from his bank account. After reaching out to the bank, they froze his card while they investigated the matter, leaving him without access to finance to pay for food and other essentials. Mr Hawkins' friend, David Morgan, said he reached out to Santander to help find out what's going on in the unauthorised transactions. The Bank of England said it could only discuss the details of the case with Hawkins. Morgan was uncaring for failing to resolve the problem, but Santander said the bank was'reviewing the right support options' for him. Since going through a series of strokes, the 72-year-old is in a wheelchair because of spinal problems and has very limited speech and movement.
Mr Hawkins is unable to use online banking and has assistance from a carer who usually purchases goods for him because of his disability. He was left with nothing because the bank had frozen his credit card. Mr Morgan said it had caused real problems, with Hawkins having to borrow money from the local authority and friends to pay for essential items. He said he had been relying on loans from friends and we got in touch with his social worker at Ceredigion council who arranged for a loan for Mr Hawkins while we were trying to sort this problem out with Santander.
Over £3,200 from his bank account had been taken from Hawkins, causing him to borrow money from friends to buy food. In July, he was first alerted to problems by Hawkins, and he contacted the bank in early August. Santander could not offer any information as Mr Morgan was not the account holder. He was also reported to action fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, but was told there were no useful lines of inquiry.