Bank launches probe for victims of HBOS crooks

FAMILIES whose businesses were wrecked by criminal bankers at HBOS could be in line for compensation after an independent review was announced yesterday.

Lynden Scourfield was jailed along with five others last week for stripping the assets from successful firms while he ran the lender’s turnaround unit in Reading.

The proceeds were spent on a £2m superyacht called Powder Monkey, sex parties with prostitutes, luxury holidays and designer watches.

It cost the bank £245m and at least 50 small businesses were ruined as a result – landing their owners with a bill estimated at £1bn by some sources.

There has been growing pressure for Lloyds, which bought HBOS during the financial crisis, to compensate the entrepreneurs whose lives were ruined by the gang.

Yesterday the bank announced it was working with regulators on an independent review of the crimes, which were committed between 2003 and 2007. Lloyds pledged to contact the business owners known to have been affected, while others who believe they took a hit can get in touch through customer services.

Bosses said that cases would be considered in a fresh light now that criminal proceedings had concluded. An independent reviewer, such as a retired judge or law firm, will be appointed to examine each case.

‘The group deeply regrets that the criminal actions have caused such distress for a number of HBOS business customers,’ the bank said. ‘Lloyds will contact all those customers it has identified as potentially affected by the criminal activities and provide redress if appropriate.’

Victims and campaigners gave the plans a cautious welcome but warned that the lender must ensure its review was sufficiently detailed and truly independent. Nikki Turner owned a music publishing business with her husband Paul that was destroyed by the gang. The 61-year- old, who set up pressure group SME Alliance to help others facing the same plight, said: ‘We’re cautiously optimistic. It’s brilliant news – now let’s see how it goes forward. We’re hoping this is a genuine offer and not just a whitewash.’

SNP MP George Kerevan, who runs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Business Banking and is a member of the Treasury Select Committee, wrote to Lloyds earlier this week call- ing for a compensation scheme. He said: ‘It is my intention to press Lloyds to create a full, fair and adequate compensation scheme for those defrauded in the HBOS Reading affair, especially as I believe Lloyds itself was partly to blame for the long delay in bringing this fraud to court.

‘Lloyds cannot expect to be judge and jury in deciding the levels due to customers who have had to wait a whole decade for justice.’