Barclays right not to pay out after couple scammed out of £700,000
Daily Record 20/01/2021 Emma Munbodh & Kirsten McStay
A woman who was conned into handing over £700,000 to a fraud investigation team , has lost every single penny - and her bank don t need to pay out.
Fiona Philipp transferred two sums of money from her Barclays bank account - one amounting to £400,000 and another £300,000 - to accounts in the United Arab Emirates back in 2018.
She and her husband were under the impression that they were helping a serious fraud investigation being run by the city watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
However, the couple were defrauded, and, in a ruling today, a judge said Barclays is not liable to compensate for any losses.
BBC News
Published
image captionThe bank is not liable for paying £700,000 back to the couple
A bank does not need to compensate a customer who was duped into paying £700,000 to fraudsters, a judge ruled.
Fiona Philipp used her Barclays account to transfer two payments of £400,000 and £300,000 to accounts in the United Arab Emirates.
She and her doctor husband thought they were helping a high-profile fraud investigation being run by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The bank said the customer had made the payments willingly.
The scam started when her husband was called by a man who claimed to work for the FCA.
A married couple duped by a fraudster into sending £700,000 ($952,665) of their savings to unknown accounts in the UAE have lost a legal battle against their bank.
UK lender Barclays successfully argued that it was not responsible for the loss of the money after the pair made two transfers, falling victim to the “sophisticated and malicious” swindle out of a mistaken belief that they were helping a fraud investigation.
Fiona Philipp, a music teacher, said the bank should have identified that the transfers of £400,000 and £300,000 were suspicious and alerted her to a potential fraud or halted the payments, which
had “financially devastating” consequences.
Barclays Bank does not have to pay out £700,000 ($950,000) to a customer tricked into wiring funds overseas after a judge said on Monday that the lender had no reason to think the client was being manipulated behind the scenes.