Tony Hawkins of Llandysul, Ceredigion, was stunned 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, a friend of Hawkins, reached out to Santander to help get to the bottom of unauthorised transactions. The Bank's statement said they could only discuss the details of the case with Hawkins. Morgan called the bank 'uncaring' for failing to resolve the problem, but Santander said it was 'examining the right support options' for him. The 72-year-old uses a wheelchair because of her vertebral arrhythmia and has very limited speech and movement since going through a series of strokes.
He is unable to use online banking because of his disability, so he receives assistance from a carer who usually purchases goods for him. As the bank had frozen his account, he was left with nothing. Mr Morgan said: The incident had caused real difficulties, with Hawkins having to borrow money from the local authority and friends to pay for essential items. We have 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 are trying to sort this problem out with Santander, he said.
Over £3,200 had been deposited into Hawkins' bank account, causing him to borrow from friends to buy food. In July, Mr Morgan was first exposed to problems by Mr Hawkins and he contacted the bank in early August. Santander could not offer any information, as Mr Morgan was not the account holder. He also reported the matter to action Fraud, UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, but was told there were no useful lines of inquiry.