Tony Hawkins of Llandysul, Ceredigion, was shocked to find that more than £3000 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 money to pay for food and other essentials. David Morgan, Hawkins' friend, reached out to Santander to help get to the bottom of the unauthorised transactions. However, the bank said they could only discuss the details of the case with Hawkins. Morgan called the banks 'uncaring' for not solving the problem, but Santander said it was'reviewing the right support options' for him. The 72-year-old has been in a wheelchair for a number of strokes, and has very limited speech and movement since going through a series of strokes.
Mr Hawkins is not able to use online banking and has assistance from a carer who usually buys goods for him because of his disability. He was left with nothing, as the bank had frozen his account. Mr Morgan said it had caused real difficulties, with Hawkins having to borrow money from the local authority and friends to pay for essential items. He has been relying on loans from friends and we got in touch with his social worker at Ceredigion Council and she arranged for a loan for Mr Hawkins while we're trying to sort this problem out with Santander, he said.
Over $3,200 of the money had been taken from Hawkins' bank account, causing him to borrow from friends to buy food. In July, Mr Morgan was alerted to problems by Mr Hawkins and he contacted the bank in early August. Santander could not provide any information, saying Mr Morgan was not the account holder. He also reported the matter to Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, but was told there were no useful lines of inquiry.