Tony Hawkins, of Llandysul, Ceredigion was shocked to find more than £3,000 had been taken from his bank account.
After reaching out to the bank, they froze his card whilst they investigated the matter, leaving him without access to funds to pay for food and other essentials.
Mr Hawkins’ friend, David Morgan, reached out to Santander to help get to the bottom of the unauthorised transactions. However, the bank stated they could only discuss the details of the case with Mr Hawkins.
Mr Morgan called the bank “uncaring” for failing to resolve the issue, but Santander said it was “reviewing the right support options” for him, the BBC reported.
Since going through a series of strokes, the 72-year-old uses a wheelchair because of spinal problems and has very limited speech and movement.
Because of his disability, Mr Hawkins is unable to use online banking so has help from a carer who usually purchases goods for him. However, as the bank had frozen his account, he was left with nothing.
Mr Morgan said it had caused real difficulties, with Mr Hawkins having to borrow money from the local authority and friends to pay for essentials.
He said “She (the carer) was not able to draw out money to buy food for him.
“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.
“The strange thing is despite stopping the use of his card, money is still going out of his account – sums he has not authorised.”
Over £3,200 had been taken from Mr. Hawkins’s bank account forcing him to borrow from friends to buy food.
Mr Morgan was first alerted to problems by Mr Hawkins in July and he contacted the bank in early August. But Santander could not offer any information as 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”.
He said the case highlighted the difficulties faced by disabled people trying to resolve banking issues.
Mr Morgan has applied for power of attorney over his friend’s financial affairs, but the application still has not been completed.
Without permission, Santander said it was unable to provide any detailed comment about Mr Hawkins’s case to Mr Morgan.
Santander said: “We are reviewing the right support options for our customer.
“Santander has a range of options in place for customers who need more tailored support, and we would encourage customers to contact us to discuss these either in branch, over the phone or via our digital channels.”
