Katie Morley Investigates Your Consumer Champion

It’s been another whirlwind of a year in the world of solving financial complaints, and I’m delighted to say that in 2023, this column won back a total of £2,397,280 for Telegraph readers. This included money raised, retrieved, located or written off by companies.

So where did most of this money come from, and where did it go? Well, most of it went to victims of evil scams and customers of incompetent or deliberately stingy insurance houses, but large sums were also dished out to owners of defunct heat pump systems, disappointed holidaymakers, owners of dodgy cars, and competition winners whose prizes hadn’t materialised.

The biggest payouts came from Santander, HSBC, Aviva, Revolut, Barclays, Lloyds and an unnamed insurer employed by Roadchef.

The largest individual refund of all went to an autistic scam victim who was conned out of £500,000 by a criminal gang who first approached him as a roofing company, but then returned posing as Trading Standards some time later. The scam crescendoed into the man being coaxed into taking out a bridging loan for £250,000 to pay for fictitious building work. It took me several months, but in the end I was able to retrieve £408,000 for him, which was a life-changing amount.

The investigation also led to Santander setting its legal heavies on the bridging loan company that facilitated the fraud. This was something I could never have achieved on my own and so, although Santander should have paid out prior to my involvement, I was extremely grateful to it for this effort to get justice for its vulnerable customer. A big pat on the back where it was due.

Not all companies were deserving of praise, though, as this year I have witnessed some of the most shocking behaviour I’ve ever seen, often with devastating impacts on readers’ lives.

Among the worst was that of a newlywed couple whose honeymoon turned into a nightmare when the bride contracted viral meningitis on a remote island near Panama. To their horror, Revolut, the bank through which the wife had travel insurance, said it had cancelled her policy because it had downgraded her account, only it had omitted to tell her this detail.

The wife became gravely ill and needed airlifting to a hospital. She was placed in an induced coma to save her life. Her desperate husband had to arrange an emergency loan from his employer for the medical treatment to go ahead, and thank goodness it stepped up. If it hadn’t, Revolut’s actions could have cost his wife her life.

In the end she pulled through but the medical bills came to £122,000, which was a devastating debt for this young couple starting their married life together. The couple complained to the Financial Ombudsman, but it provisionally ruled in favour of Revolut. This

‘Revolut, through which the sick wife had travel insurance, cancelled her policy, but omitted to tell her’

seemed unbelievable, but then I discovered its decision was based on “misleading” evidence as a different version of the account downgrade email to the one the bride had actually seen, had been submitted by Revolut. This masked the bank’s own major failings, which whether deliberate or not, I was absolutely appalled by. Thankfully, following my involvement, Revolut stumped up the full amount plus £6,900 in legal fees, which the couple were over the moon about, not least because they had just found out they were expecting their first baby. I didn’t print this at the time as it was early days, but I’m delighted to reveal the child is due to be born in May. So a very happy new year to them.

Now, I don’t know if it’s just me, but the cases I deal with seem to get more unusual with each year that passes (I’ve been Consumer Champion since 2019). It is true what they say about reality being stranger than fiction, and one particular case that landed on my desk in May really did prove this. A woman asked me to investigate a £500,000 investment scam her partner had fallen for, but what he revealed to me shocked not just the woman, but me and hundreds of thousands of readers who read the story, to the core. In fact he had been having a secret relationship with a younger woman, who had faked her own death and invented numerous other characters to fleece him out of the money.

In the end he was refunded £150,000 by Lloyds. However, his partner, who wrote to me, ended their relationship, leaving him devastated. They remain friends, and the police are slowly but surely closing in on the perpetrator, so the case continues.

Reflecting on the past year always turns my mind to what this column is really about, which despite this article’s headline, isn’t money. It’s the wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of helping; from newlyweds, to working families, retirees and the elderly and terminally ill, some of whom are in their final weeks of life. Hearing their stories and having the chance to make a difference is a joy and a privilege. Supporting you through the best and worst of times is what gets me out of bed in the morning, even on these cold and dark days.

So, dear readers, the only thing left to say is thank you so much for reading me, writing to me, and trusting me with your most intimate stories. Keep the letters coming, I’ll do my best to help.