ARMY VETERANS MOBILISE TO HELP 82 YEAR-OLD VETERAN TERRORISED BY HALIFAX AND LLOYDS BANKING GROUP OVER MIS-SOLD MORTGAGE
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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.
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

Boots on the ground: veterans' rights campaigner and
ex-Para Steve Garside takes a case to Buckingham Palace
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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) |
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.
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.
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Kevin Brennan MP |
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Supt Bob Tooby: stonewalling? |
" 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."
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The lawyers' deal: get him to acknowledge the debt so we can take his home when he dies... |
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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.
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.
GREED IS GOOD
Antonio Horta-Osório: Image Problem?
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Riding High: Horta-Osório |
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
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Laughing: Martin Dodds |
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."
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.
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
Don't know what I can do from here in the USA but sounds like my fellow Para are closing in for the kill. Have at it!
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