ARMY VETERANS MOBILISE TO HELP 82 YEAR-OLD VETERAN TERRORISED BY HALIFAX AND LLOYDS BANKING GROUP OVER MIS-SOLD MORTGAGE
 |
| Suez veteran Ray Davies |
Ten years ago, 72 year-old Cardiff retiree and Suez veteran Ray Davies was granted a 40-year mortgage by a local branch of HBOS trading as Halifax, previously known to the British public as The Halifax Building Society. In other words, the elderly veteran, coping with the onset of dementia, would be paying back the mortgage until he reached the age of 112.
Ten years later, Halifax, now a part of Lloyds Banking Group, claimed that the 82-year old Parachute Regiment veteran owed them £94,000 despite assurances several years ago by Halifax that the loan, obtained on the basis of payslips falsified by the two conmen who had marched Mr Davies into the city's Working Street branch, would be frozen pending inquiries. Lloyds Banking Group is 39% state-owned because of government bailouts, which means that the British people whom veterans like Ray Davies served own 39% of the still-troubled banking conglomerate.
Towards the end of 2013, Halifax and Lloyds Banking Group executives received a sharp lesson in the two-way nature of exploiting social media for free promotional and advertising purposes as a group of serving and former soldiers from various British Army regiments mobilised by longtime family friend and former Welsh Guardsman Tony Aitken and ex-Para Steve Garside to help the former paratrooper whose life was blighted by the ongoing harassment and the ever-present fear of losing his home. Halifax and Lloyds Banking Group Facebook page administrators initially reacted by deleting Ray Davies-related posts but as membership of the Facebook Group set up by fellow veterans Aitken and Garside swiftly rose to more than 800, the censorship was abandoned.
SWEATING BANKERS
In November 2013, Halifax and Lloyds executives including Halifax executive team spokesperson Wendy Zeal, reporting to her superior, Lloyds Banking Group Customer Service Director Martin Dodds, pleaded with campaign co-organiser Steve Garside to halt the growing Internet lobbying campaign, which was spreading to veterans' websites, the blogosphere and even Lloyds Banking Group CEO António Horta-Osório's own Facebook page. They led Mr Garside and Mr Aitken to believe that Ray Davies would be compensated and that the title deeds to his home would be returned to him. In agreeing to suspend the campaign in December 2013 in view of promises from Halifax and Lloyds Banking Group executives of a solution involving the return to Mr Davies of the title deeds of his home, Steve Garside had made it clear that the banking group should also compensate Mr Davies.
|
|
Boots on the ground: veterans' rights campaigner and
ex-Para Steve Garside takes a case to Buckingham Palace
|
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source close to the top at Lloyds Banking Group suggested that the last thing the still-troubled firm needed was "the tabloids screaming about the harassment of plucky old soldier and dementia sufferer Ray Davies after the revelations about the bonus awarded to the CEO in view of the fact that we are in fact insolvent in spite of all that money we got from the government."
Lloyds Banking Group and Halifax have now returned Mr Davies' house deeds but refuse to compensate him financially in any way. Tony Aitkin said: "l contacted Lloyds/Halifax about this and got a rather cocky reply saying that the return of the deeds was an act of goodness, without any admission of liability, and they want to see the matter end there, with no compensation, not even a return of the money they took from him over the years. They claim they do not see anything wrong with the original mortgage but have you ever heard of a bank giving something back if they are in the right?
"Ray has suffered over the last ten years with the fear of losing his home , his savings spent on solicitors who did F-A. The police , judges, banking ombudsman all failed him/ The system let him down. It took army veterans and ordinary people to gain justice thus far. The bank obviously saw it was a fraudulent transaction. We will be pursuing the police and others who failed this old man, including his local MP".
STRIPPED OF KNIGHTHOOD
 |
| HBOS CEO James Crobsy (right) |
Although Halifax plc was merged with the Bank of Scotland in 2001 and rebranded as HBOS, the new firm continued to use the Halifax name as it was familiar to the public who still thought of firms like the Halifax, Abbey National and Bradford & Bingley as the traditional building societies of the past. HBOS touted itself as the new "fifth force" in British retail or high street banking, a challenge to the established "Big Four" high street banks. The bank also set about transforming itself into the UK's biggest mortgage lender using tactics that some might describe as criminal. In 2003, The BBC's Money Programme exposed systematic mortgage fraud throughout HBOS. Undercover BBC researchers posing as mortgage applicants caught brokers on camera advising them to lie on applications for self-certified mortgages from various HBOS companies. HBOS CEO James Crosby refused to be interviewed about the exposed mortgage fraud.
On 19.1.2009, the failing HBOS was taken over by Lloyds TSB, thus becoming part of Lloyds Banking Group. The takeover was personally steered by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown who also made sure that HBOS got £37 billion in taxpayers' money to keep it solvent during the takeover. HBOS continues to operate as a separate group within LBG, suffering losses despite the bailout by taxpayers and the imposition of hefty fines for its past and ongoing misdeeds. James Crosby had been knighted for his services in 2006. However, he was publicly disgraced and stripped of his knighthood in June 2013 after an official report castigated him over the growing scandal surrounding HBOS malpractice.
As the 2008 economic crash revealed, senior bank executives created an environment in which greed and the inevitable corrupt practices bred by greed were tolerated and even encouraged. It is not hard to imagine the two conmen who targeted the vulnerable army veteran feeling very safe in marching him into the Working Street branch of Halifax/HBOS, armed with forged pay slips, to obtain a loan whose terms were finessed by a solicitor working for both parties under the supervision of a staff member who may or may not have been corrupt, as alleged, but who probably felt secure in the knowledge that senior management would pose no questions as long as they could meet the quotas imposed by a directorate keen to transform HBOS into "Britain's biggest mortgage lender" in line with James Crosby's ambitions.
Previously, the two men had apparently gotten to know Mr Davies before swindling him out of his £250,000 life savings by convincing him that they could manage his money better than his existing broker. Already struggling with the slow but steady inset of dementia, army veteran and honest working man Ray Davies spent the next decade of his life in terror of eviction from the home he had purchased outright for cash earned from decades of hard work as a steel erector and welder. The solicitor who helped to broker the mortgage has since been struck off for unrelated malpractice.
 |
| Kevin Brennan MP |
In the intervening ten years, Ray Davies and concerned friends have been unable to persuade the police, the Banking Ombudsman, and Mr Davies' local MP Kevin Brennan, currently the Shadow Minister for Schools, to take an interest in the case. Nobody at the Halifax apparently saw any problem with giving a 72-year old retiree a forty year mortgage, lending him £50,000 against his home and, of course, taking the title deeds as collateral. After all, Ray Davies no longer had £250,000 in investments to offer as security against a cash loan. Challenged about this by concerned friends of Mr Davies, a Halifax representative asserted that the bank had been duly diligent, relying upon pay slips supplied by the two conmen apparently proving that the septuagenarian retiree was still working and therefore able to make the mortgage repayments.
 |
| Supt Bob Tooby: stonewalling? |
South Wales Police refused to act, telling Mr Davies that it was a civil case. From 2004 to 2007, local MP Kevin Brennan wrote to various senior officers of the South Wales Police who responded either by claiming no knowledge of the attempts by Ray Davies and friends of his to persuade the police to take an interest or by not responding at all. In a letter dated 15.5.2007 to Superintendent Bob Tooby of the Cardiff Police, Mr Brennan wrote:
" In his letter to me dated 3rd May 2007, Inspector Smith stated he had no knowledge of this particular case, and could I forward him certain documents, in order for him to be able to answer various queries raised by me.
"My constituent's case is soon to be heard in court and it is now vital that the queries that I have raised on my constituent's behalf are answered.
"I wrote to your predecessor on 2nd July 2004 and yourself on 3rd September 2005 raising various queries and issues. You responded on 28th September stating that a decision is yet to be made. I enclose copies of all three letters for your retention."
 |
The lawyers' deal: get him to acknowledge the debt
so we can take his home when he dies... |
 |
| Chris Detheridge |
The civil courts also failed Mr Davies, as did the solicitors who took what little money the elderly veteran could spare from his pension but apparently did very little in return. As recently as 18.5.2012, Christopher Detheridge of Shrewsbury law firm Wace Morgan Solicitors advised Mr Davies to accept a deal proposed by Halifax Plc's solicitor, writing that that, as discussed previously, "I have consistently advised against further litigation with the bank but I have indicated a contrary intention. I need you to be very clear in that making any payment you will be acknowledging the existence and therefore the validity of the mortgage."
Mr Detheridge also stated that the bank's solicitor had proposed that Mr Davies pay a nominal monthly sum of £5.00, adding that Mr Davies would not be able to pursue further litigation against Halifax Plc, writing "the bank will require some acknowledgement that the mortgage exists and that the bank will be able to recoup their monies when either the property is sold or you pass away." One might be excused for wondering whose interests Mr Detheridge was representing.
|
|
Antonio Horta-Osório: Image Problem?
|
In January 2009, HBOS plc was taken over by Lloyds TSB, becoming part of Lloyds Banking Group but continues for the time being to operate as an independent organisation in the group. When Gordon Brown, remembered as the Prime Minister sold the UK's gold reserves for a knockdown price, abused his position to force through the bailout of his banker mates, the fat cats standing to gain from the deal would have been aware of exactly what they were taking on in terms of potential liability in terms of the bad debt arising from the questionable business practices encouraged by the management from the very top downwards. HBOS retains its corporate headquarters in Edinburgh, in the former head offices of the Bank of Scotland, while its operational headquarters are in the old Halifax head offices in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax. The Chief Executive Officer of Lloyds Banking Group is António Horta-Osório, a Portugese banker who joined LBG in January 2011 as Executive Director and became CEO in March 2011.
António Horta-Osório describes himself to acquaintances as a committed Anglophile, someone who loves England and Britain so much that his tennis shoes and the cushions in his office are emblazoned with the Union Flag. “I really like the UK – the culture, the culture of tolerance, the great corporate governance,” he told a Daily Telegraph journalist. “This is where my wife and I want to see our children grow, and we want to stay here for the forseeable future.” Many upper class Portuguese gentlemen are Anglophiles and Britain and Portugal have long been natural allies. However, British taxpayers might wonder how much of Mr Horta-Osório's anglophilia could be due to the £8.33 million salary package that tempted him away from Santander, where he was paid the equivalent of £3.4 million, to say nothing of his bonus package, details of which were recently leaked to the press.
 |
| Riding High: Horta-Osório |
António Horta-Osório is in line for a £2.3 million bonus despite the group's recent announcement that it was in the red to the tune of £440 million following payment of a £750 million 'provision' for 'mis-selling' payment protection insurance. The British taxpayer owns 32% of Lloyds, which made 7,000 employees redundant in 2012 and plans to turn a further 8,000 into jobseekers over the next two years. As Robert Oxley, Campaign Director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, told the media: "The priority of Lloyds should be paying back taxpayers, not handing out bonuses to already very well-paid staff. The bank had to rely on a huge bailout from taxpayers, which much be repaid as soon as possible."
A Lloyds spokesman said: "Antonio's bonus, which he won't receive until 2018, reflects the significant turnaround at Lloyds under his leadership, something that has enabled taxpayers to start getting their money back at a profit." Back in March 2011, Mr Horta-Osório himself had promised that Lloyds "will be totally focused on the UK with the ultimate aim of getting tax-payers their money back. To achieve this will require putting the customers at the heart of the bank".
LBG executives and spinners are currently doing their best to disassociate Mr Horta-Osório from newly revealed misdeeds returning to haunt the banking group in the shape of the mis-selling by staff of more than £2 billion of income protection insurance and other products their customers did not actually need. The PR spinners argue that the mis-selling began before Mr Horta-Osório's installation in March 2011 but seem to forget that this officially sanctioned abuse of customers continued for nearly a year after the smiling anglophile arrived promising to repay British taxpayers. Following close behind revelations of the Payment Protection Insurance scam that has cost LBG shareholders £8 billion to date, it is probably true that cases like that of Ray Davies would not go down to well with the British public-at-large, who own from 33% to 39% of Lloyds Banking Group, depending on which sources one prefers to trust.
BULLISH ZEAL
 |
| Laughing: Martin Dodds |
Lloyds Banking Group continue to dig their heels in over the question of an ex gratia compensation payment to Ray Davies to cover his expenses and the money extorted from him because of proven banking malpractice.
Describing a recent conversation with Halifax executive team representative Wendy Zeal, Tony Aitken stated: "She says her stance is the same and she said they will not bow down to any campaign, and says their stance is that the deeds were more than enough compensation for Ray."
Wendy Zeal told the Justice for Ray Davies campaign that as the Ray Davies case predated Lloyds Banking Group's acquisition of HBOS, LBG was not in fact responsible for it. However, Ms Zeal's assertion is undermined by the harassment of Ray Davies right up to the end of 2013, five years after LBG acquired HBOS sometimes trading as Halifax. Ms Zeal also uses a Lloyds Banking Group email address and is said to be reporting directly to LBG Customer Services Director Martin Dodds, based at the group's London headquarters. Mr Dodds reports in turn to Mr Horta-Osório.
Meanwhile, Mr Horta-Osório told the BBC this month that Lloyds is "back to normal" and that his £1.7 million bonus for 2013 is "aligned with taxpayers' interests". He said: "I strongly believe you
should link compensation with performance, and having increased our underlying
profits by 140%, we thought it was appropriate to increase the bonus pool of
the bank by 8%. The legacy issues were much
higher than we had anticipated or than the regulator thought then, and we were
absolutely committed to cleaning them and doing the right thing for
customers... It is not a matter of financials, it is a matter of
principle."
One wonders how many 'legacy issues' like the case of Ray Davies are out there, waiting to come home to roost. Mr Horta-Osório and his colleagues might want to have a word with the bullish Ms Zeal and her superior Martin Dodds about the refusal to "bow down" in the light of the fact that in giving Mr Davies' title deeds back to him, they have effectively admitted wrongdoing on the banking group's part. With the support of the 'Maroon Machine' and other veterans' groups whose members know a thing or two about organisation, the Ray Davies problem is not about to fade away like the old soldiers of lore.
14.2.2014
