MAIL WON BACK MY £190,OOO

JOHN BURBURRY, 83, lost £190,000 to an investment scam, but only got his life savings back after asking Money Mail for help.

Fed up with poor savings rates, the retired engineer was desperate to get a reasonable return on his nest egg when he stumbled across an attractive offer with well-known international bank BNP Paribas.

The website advertised two corporate bonds, Tesco and Yorkshire Water Services, paying 5 pc and 6.5876 pc respectively, four times more than the 1.2 pc he was earning.

John who lives in Kent with wife Jan, 80, entered his details on the website and was contacted by the company’s ‘investor relations team’. After a series of telephone calls, John bought £20,000 of Yorkshire Water Services bonds, and £170,000 of Tesco bonds the following week.

But John, never received the monthly income he had been promised.

The website had appeared genuine, including a copycat logo and company number, but it was fake, and John had been conned. He says: ‘The bottom fell out of my world.’ John contacted Barclays to see if the money could be recovered. Under the new code of conduct, the bank should have responded within two weeks. But it was not until more than a month later that he received a call — and he was only offered counselling.

It was only following Money Mail’s intervention that Barclays refunded John the full £190,000 plus 8 pc interest.

The bank claims it never told John he wouldn’t get a refund. A spokesman says: ‘On this occasion we have failed to meet the high standards that Mr Burburry can expect to receive from Barclays, and for this we have offered our sincere apologies.’