HBOS victims urge Lloyds chiefs to release secret internal report
THE couple who blew the whistle on the fraud at HBOS Reading last night piled pressure on Lloyds to release a secret internal report into the scandal.
Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, who chairs the all-party group on fair business banking, last week said he will publish the so-called Turnbull Report on Thursday unless Lloyds does so first.
Nikki and Paul Turner, who have spent a decade seeking justice for HBOS Reading victims after their music firm was wrecked by the bank, urged Lloyds to publish immediately.
‘At this point it’s the right thing to do,’ Nikki said.
Lloyds took over HBOS after the scandal but it has been accused of sitting on the Turnbull Report that has been kept under wraps for five years.
Financial Mail last month revealed damning claims contained in the 160-page report. TV star Noel Edmonds, who says the bank’s actions pushed him to the brink of suicide, said: ‘I read the Turnbull report and wept not just for myself and my family but for all who have contacted me and encouraged me to continue the fight because their businesses and livelihoods have been devastated.’ It alleges that former HBOS chief executives Andy Hornby and James Crosby, ex-chairman Lord Stevenson and Peter Cummings, the former head of corporate banking, tried to cover up the now notorious Reading fraud that ruined scores of firms.
Nikki Turner last night warned bank chiefs: ‘The more you try to hide, the more comes out.’