Ombudsman Services: "Waiting For An Alibi" by Thin Lizzie (Attempt 18)
To the Leader of the House of Commons / The Business Secretary and Chair of Ombudsman Services:
Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-Up Attempt 18.
18) "Waiting For An Alibi" by Thin Lizzy.
Dear Mrs Leadsom, Mr Hunt and Lord Tim Clement Jones,
The early part of the 21st century has certainly been the Golden Age of the Conbudsman.
The Telegraph tell us:
'The Financial Ombudsman failed us – now we want our cases reviewed' (The Telegraph Sunday 18th March 2018)
This reader said the ombudsman overlook a number of important aspects of his fraud case and has asked for a reviewCredit: Jay Williams
Telegraph Money readers are calling for the Financial Ombudsman Service to review their cases, after an undercover journalist appeared to show staff at the dispute resolution service failing to understand the financial services they were investigating.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, Ombudsman Services have admitted that its "investigators" did not understand the complexity of property disputes. Is this what The Rev Shand Smith means when he says Ombudsman Services is, "a broken solution in a broken market?" Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, is there not an urgent need for ALL property complainants to have their cases reviewed by those who actually know what they're doing?
The Dispatches documentary recorded an employee admitting that they rushed through cases to meet targets, and ruled in favour of the banks because it was easier than persuading businesses to pay out.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, haven't surveyors also created a business of not paying and isn't it called, "Ombudsman Services:Property? Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, the Ombudsman Services Minutes and Annual Report state that when concerns were raised about the rise of "financial awards" the Property Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, lowered them significantly. Was this because her fee-paying Members could not be persuaded to pay out even as much as £100?
Two Telegraph readers, Donald Kelly, a retired professor, and Barrie Cooper, both fell victim to similar solicitor scams. The FOS ruled against them both, after they complained that the banks involved should have stopped the fraudsters stealing tens of thousands of pounds.
'The ombudsman delivered two contradictory views in 12 months'
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, in our Provisional Conclusion the letter began by stating Monk and Partners would have to take steps to put matters right and ended by saying they didn't. Isn't this more than crassly incompetent - isn't it criminally negligent? At the time Prof Kelly branded the ombudsman “crassly incompetent”.
<img class="responsive article-body-image-image" src="/content/dam/money/2018/03/14/107182315_Jay-Williams_Donald-Kelly-Your-Money_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrXQPXGvM58CJoUBPwmOnPxNpJRkztJkuB91uErqiR7A.jpg?imwidth=480" alt="Donald and Patricia Kelly">
The ombudsman changed its mind about whether Lloyds should have to repay the Kellys the £47,508 they had stolen by a fraudsterCredit: Jay Williams
The FOS responded by saying it was “really disappointed that this case took so long” and recognised it could have “handled things better”. Remarking on the documentary, Prof Kelly said: “Nothing surprised me. From my experience the FOS is dysfunctional and clearly lacks proper training for individual staff whose background is often inadequate for dealing with complex forensic matters.”
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, the Ombudsman Services:Property Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, in her Annual Report statement, admitted that her investigators needed further training in the complexity of property disputes and yet still managed to arrive at decisions in an illogical manner. Why didn't Government monitors intervene at that time to protect consumers?
Lloyds said it complied with all relevant regulation when opening the account and responded promptly when it was notified about the scam.
'I asked for a review of my case in October'
Fraud victim Mr Cooper had already asked for his case to be reviewed in October as he felt significant parts of his complaint were overlooked. Since the Dispatches programme, he has written to the ombudsman again. But the FOS says its decisions are final.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, Ombudsman Services:Property also say that their decisions - no matter how illogical - are also final. Does this not combine being profoundly undemocratic with being profoundly corrupt as the only beneficiaries are incompetent and or corrupt surveyors? Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Hunt and Lord Tim Clement Jones, is this scheme not in effect a protection racket for incompetent surveyors who can't even manage and maintain something as basic as a Case File?
Mr Cooper, 82, was tricked into paying more than £50,000 into the account of a criminal posing as his solicitor in February 2016. He argued that TSB, the fraudster’s bank, enabled the crime by allowing the criminal, who was not the account holder, to move large sums out of the account without question. When he uncovered the ruse Mr Cooper alerted his own bank, First Direct, which contacted TSB. TSB blocked the account after calling the criminal, who failed to pass its verification process on the phone. But by this time £46,738 of Mr Cooper’s funds had been transferred to other people. Most of the recipients of the funds were new payees and had been set up within days of Mr Cooper making the payment, according to the FOS report.
Barrie Cooper has already requested the ombudsman examine his case againCredit: Jay Williams
Mr Cooper said he feels TSB failed to “act properly” with regard to this and the ombudsman is “toothless” for not acknowledging it.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, Martin Lewis in his report - Sharper Teeth: The Consumer Need for Ombudsman Reform has described this situation as being, "farcical." When Ombudsmen systematically fail to forensically investigate consumer complaints and systematically come down on the side of those they're supposedly investigating and then add insult to injury when "awarding" peanuts, isn't this more criminal than farcical?
“TSB should never have allowed the funds to be moved out of the account by someone who wasn’t the account holder,” he said. TSB said it had a “complex and multi-layered framework” in place to detect and prevent fraud. However it admitted it cannot stop all scams, which are becoming more sophisticated. The bank said it had no reason to question the significant payments in and out of their criminal customer’s account in the report and did not see why it should refund Mr Cooper. The adjudicator and ombudsman agreed. The FOS’s powers are limited. It can only consider investigating “payment services” and the “ancillary activities” surrounding it. The running and general management of the account and account opening procedures are not considered. Mr Cooper eventually received £7,283 back, although he said this payment was never explained. The FOS refused to comment on Mr Cooper’s experience.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, we took our complaint to the parliamentary and health service ombudsman, Dame Julie Mellor, who asked us to provide more information and then threatened to prosecute us after we did. The Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman only recently declined to explain what that prosecution would entail. Why?
It said it was talking to and supporting people who are getting in touch with concerns about their own individual cases.
A ‘wake-up call’ for the industry
MPs and campaigners are now pressuring the FOS for answers. Nicky Morgan MP, who chairs the Treasury Committee, has written to Caroline Wayman, the chief executive of the FOS, questioning the “poor decision making at the FOS”, the “alleged errors” and “improper handling of cases”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills - now the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy - has known about Ombudsman Services:Property's own, "poor decision making," "alleged errors," "maladministration" and improper handling of cases" for a decade. Why did no one in a position of authority act to protect consumers?
Ms Morgan also questioned whether the FOS has the ability to reopen cases that might have been handled incorrectly.
Q. Mrs Leadsom Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, why haven't those who mishandled cases been prosecuted? And if there isn't a law in place to prosecute those who are supposed to protect the consumer isn't there an urgent need for one?
Ros Altmann, the Tory peer and former pensions minister, who featured in the documentary, has called for “urgent action”. She said the documentary should be “an important wake-up call to the industry” and that a more thorough investigation by Parliament was warranted.
Baroness Altmann has called for 'urgent action'Credit: PA
The FOS has said its board will be conducting an internal review, but James Daley, founder of Fairer Finance, the consumer campaign group, said there was “room for an external inquiry”. He said this would need to come from the Government, as the board are implicated in the failings that “happened on their watch”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, an 80%+ dissatisfaction rate with Ombudsman Services:Property has happened on your watch. Is there not now an urgent need for a public inquiry into this, "farcical" ombudsman scheme?
The FOS has published a statement on its website claiming that the Dispatches programme gave an “unfair impression” of the service. It said its role was to investigate disputes between financial business and customers and make “impartial decisions” based on what’s “fair and reasonable” in each case and added that it would be conducting an internal review of concerns raised.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones, this is yet another Ombudsman scheme claiming to make, "impartial decisions" that are, "fair and reasonable" when quite clearly the opposite is true - that decisions aren't impartial and they're neither fair nor reasonable. Isn't the truth of the matter that these schemes prop up businesses and markets that have developed practices that do not work in the customer's interest's and they have now reached scandalous proportions?
Thin Lizzy tell us, "It's not that he doesn't tell the truth. Or even that he misspent his youth. It's just that he holds the proof. But you know something's wrong."
80%+ of property complainants can't all be wrong although we know of one Ombudsman Services Independent Assessor who would have the brass neck to claim he hadn't found a single incidence of bias. That it was easy to claim so when the Ombudsman's totally fair and impartial decision went against you but hard to prove. We've known something's been wrong since our Provisional Conclusion and, yes, its been hard to prove especially when no one is prepared to listen.
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, in your Foreword for the 2017 Annual Report will you be offering the 80%+ of property complainants an unreserved apology for having the temerity to suggest that your best efforts simply hadn't been good enough?
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