‘I was groomed by a rogue FSCS worker’

Employee of financial lifeboat called 75-year-old mini-bond victim ‘darling’ and borrowed £10,000. By Harry Brennan

Arogue employee at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme solicited loans from an old age pensioner with cancer in a major breach of the organisation’s protocols, Telegraph Money can disclose.

Ramou Colley, an FSCS review expert, borrowed some £10,000 from a 75-year- old man who had turned to the compensation scheme after he lost thousands of pounds when London Capital & Finance, a “mini-bond” firm, collapsed in 2019. Ms Colley, who also chairs a sustainable development charity called Rahma Project, was involved with helping the man recover his losses.

The incident broke the organisation’s standards and ethics, it said, and it confirmed that she was no longer an employee.

The FSCS, set up to compensate consumers when financial institutions fail, has concluded an investigation and said it would review staff training and look at making its procedures more robust. It said it held staff to the highest standards of ethical behaviour and integrity.

However, the incident has exposed issues with training and behaviour at the lifeboat fund, experts said. There are also concerns that such a turn of events is possible, given that employees are privy to the financial information of individuals often at their lowest ebb.

Andy Agathangelou of the Transparency Task Force, a social enterprise, said the FSCS had “failed” to protect one of its consumers. “Clearly some will question the scrutiny the FSCS applies to its own employees,” he said.

Ms Colley befriended the man, who has lymphoma among other health conditions, after he was awarded £20,000 in compensation for his LC&F losses. She then asked him for loans on three occasions. Two small loans of around £1,500 each were repaid but a larger £7,000 debt remains outstanding.

The elderly man, whose identity has been concealed, said: “She knew I had money. We spoke over the phone and became friendly. I asked her to dinner to thank her for her help with my claim, although she never came.”

The pensioner said he had lent Ms Colley the money to help her clear an overdraft and cover legal fees relating to a property purchase, even though he had never met her. He has been trying to recover the funds since May.

The man said believed he was “groomed” as part of a “romance scam”, where confidence tricksters feign romantic interest to convince a victim to give them money – an allegation Ms Colley strongly denies.

He said the former FSCS employee made promises of repayment “she never kept” and lured him into a false sense of security by repaying two small loans before “coming in for the kill”.

Emails between the two, seen by this newspaper, showed Ms Colley referring to the man as “darling” and saying she was “counting the days” to seeing him. Later emails showed the relationship breaking down and Ms Colley making repeated promises to repay the funds.

She denied any criminal wrongdoing and said she had been unable to repay the loans because she had not received other money she had been expecting.

“I have never denied he lent me money and I started paying him back.

I will stand up with my head held high in any court and repeat exactly that, because it is the truth,” she said. She added that she “did not put a gun to his head” and the money was lent “of his own free will”. Ms Colley said she had felt bullied and threatened by the pensioner, who had been demanding repayment, and promised to clear the debt by the end of the month. She resigned from the FSCS while its investigation into her conduct was taking place.

The FSCS has refused to reimburse the man as it could not be responsible for the personal relationships of its employees. A spokesman said that it took the situation and allegations extremely seriously and that it was “reviewing procedures and training to ensure they remain appropriate and robust”.