Andrea’s small but vital Philips Trust victory
ALTHOUGH she might not be in the same league as Alan Bates – the sub-postmaster who brought the Post Office Horizons scandal bubbling to the surface – the admirable Andrea Hindley is not frightened to take on the financial establishment. She has broad shoulders.
Andrea is one of the linchpins behind a campaign to get financial justice for those 2,300 people who have lost money as a result of being introduced to unregulated will writing and trust fund services by their local building society.
Many of those who took up the offer ultimately ended up with their home and investments sitting inside a trust controlled by Philips Trust Corporation, a wrong ’un (the police are investigating) and now in administration.
While customers have since got back ownership of their homes, their investments are worth peanuts and administrator Kroll is trying to salvage what remains (at some considerable expense). It’s a sorry affair.
Last month, the regulator (the Financial Conduct Authority) washed its hands of the matter. After much procrastination, it said it could not hold the building societies responsible for the actions of Philips Trust because it did not exist at the time they recommended customers to use the services of the Will Writing Company and Family Trust Corporation (both, part of Estate
Planning Group).
Philips Trust only came on the scene when the Will Writing Company went bust and customers transferred assets from Family to Philips Trust.
Like all those who have lost a big chunk of their life savings, the FCA’s decision has dismayed Andrea (in her case, it was her parents who were the victims).
Yet she isn’t giving up the fight. A few days ago, she got Kroll to force the FCA to amend its statement on Philips Trust.
Originally, it said: ‘Our understanding, supported by the administrators [Kroll], is that it was the actions of Philips Trust, not the building societies, which caused customers to experience investment losses.’
Later on, it said that some of the building societies were ‘engaged with the administrators’ over ‘some possible support to affected customer on a voluntary basis’.
Yet Kroll had no contact with the FCA ahead of the statement’s publication. As a result, Andrea successfully got Kroll to get the FCA to remove ‘supported by the administrators’ and ‘engaged with the administrators’ from the statement.
A small victory, yes. But Andrea, a retired publican from Devon, is determined not to let the FCA wash its hands of the scandal. She will continue to hold its feet to the fire until those building societies involved in this dreadful affair are held to account for their actions.
She is right to do so. After all, without the involvement of these societies, for which they received undisclosed commission payments, there would be no Philips Trust scandal.