£7,710 stolen while I had cancer

Halifax said it is not going to reimburse me £7,710 that has been stolen from my account.

I opened this account in 1999 as a Saver Reward. I last put money into it in 2010. I did not look at this account until I went into the branch last month. Then I was told the amount in the passbook did not tally.

Over two years £7,710 had been taken fraudulently. The first amount was £1,000. Then there were 13 other transactions.

Because there was no activity on this account the fraudsters must have presumed I was dead.

Halifax said it has my signature for all these amounts but it is not mine. Halifax told me I should have kept a closer eye on the account.

I told them that I have had cancer and was going through a bad course of 10 chemotherapies and radiotherapy. I lost all my hair and felt so ill. I have DP, WEST MIDLANDS

The disappearance of this money was shocking news, of course, particularly given all the other problems you have had to contend with. Further to my involvement Halifax refunded the full £7,710 and paid £250 for goodwill.

Halifax said: “We take all instances of fraud very seriously and have robust fraud prevention processes in place to protect our customers. We are sorry for any distress that Ms P experienced and have reviewed the original decision.”

It seems that a duplicate passbook may have been issued and fraud carried out with that. Investigations show, I am assured, that it was not an internal fraud.

Both Halifax and I tried to reach you to talk about this but you didn’t pick up the phone for a long time until at last I did get through. It turns out you have just had a major cancer operation.

Macmillan Cancer Support can be contacted on 0808 808 0000. maintained a good supply of spare parts.

A British Gas spokesman said: “Unfortunately, there was a delay in responding to Mr P’s request for a contribution towards the cost of a replacement appliance, which is allowed under his policy.

“We recognise that our delay resulted in a poor experience for Mr P, for which we are sorry.”

British Gas has now paid £241 in respect of 30pc of the cost of an equivalent modern day appliance to the one that was written off.

A £50 goodwill gesture has also been paid.