Couple win battle with bank

Pamela and Brian Fagan

A COUPLE who mounted a protest outside a bank after it failed to repay money to their account have finally won their battle.

In February this year a judge in Bury St Edmunds County Court ordered the HBOS to repay Brian and Pamela Fagan more than £2,000 after the couple successfully proved they had been mis-sold an insurance policy.

But eight months later the couple had still not received the money that HBOS was ordered to repay them - until the EADT took up their case with the giant banking group this week.

Mr Fagan, 62, is a full-time carer for his wife who suffers from serious kidney problems. He has been staging a series of protest demonstrations outside the bank's branch in Bury St Edmunds.

Holding placards saying "Halifax Bank Of Spivs", he handed out flyers with details of the couple's case.

"It was terrible that we had to do that," said Mr Fagan, who lives in Stradishall, between Bury and Haverhill. "But we had no other option because the bank refused to pay us what we were owed and wouldn't even explain why they wouldn't pay.

"It has been an eight-year nightmare. My wife had been a loyal customer of the Halifax for 38 years.

"She was mis-sold an insurance policy she didn't want for a credit card she didn't need. Staff told her that she needed it even though she had retired because of ill-health.

"In spite of that, she was persuaded to sign an application form but we never received a letter of agreement giving terms and conditions.

"But because she suffers from renal failure and diabetes we discovered that she would never have been able to claim on the insurance policy anyway.

"She was never told the terms and conditions and cancelled it but the bank kept on taking the money."

In January this year judgement was awarded to Mrs Fagan against HBOS ordering them to repay £2,304.36 plus interest.

“99 per cent of the people we told about our case has been entirely supportive and many said that they have had problems of their own with their banks," said Mr Fagan. "The people working in the branch told us there was nothing they could do to help us."

A spokesman for HBOS confirmed that the sum owed will now be repaid in full.