A groundbreaking fraud support service in Cleveland has helped victims claw back nearly £290,000 in lost cash.
The Financial Fraud Advocates (FFA) pilot, run by Safer Communities, has now recovered a total of £289,587.17 for people targeted by scammers across the region.
A further £442,678.84 is currently being pursued in active cases with banks, financial institutions and the Financial Ombudsman, so even more victims could soon see money returned to their accounts.
Among the recent successes is the recovery of £26,000 for an 86-year-old, terminally ill woman with memory loss from Stockton-on-Tees, whose savings were stolen by a relative. Her son Ian described the ordeal as “devastating” and said he would never have got the money back without support from the service.
“We first noticed something was wrong in September – my sister was cashing a cheque for mum and saw unusual transactions. The relative involved, who’d been living with Mum and Dad at the time, disappeared shortly after that,” he said.
“I went to the bank straight away. They investigated it and implied it was much worse than we originally thought – this family member had even accessed Mum’s ISA, which she had only ever paid into, never withdrawn from.
“The staff at the bank weren’t interested in helping me get the money back, they were tying me up in knots, making things difficult and implying that it had somehow been our fault for not looking after things better,” he said.
“We questioned why the unusual activity hadn’t flagged any concerns, but they said they couldn’t do anything without power of attorney. It took four months to sort out; we were back and forth to the bank constantly while trying to look after Mum, and my dad was in bits emotionally. The betrayal was devastating – that money was set aside for mum’s care.”
