A pensioner whose purse was stolen at Aldi and who lost £750 was left desperate after her bank refused to help.
The woman, in her eighties, reported the theft to police and had her debit card blocked before she even left the store in Milnrow, Rochdale.
However, the thieves acted quickly and withdrew the cash from a nearby ATM within six minutes between the card being stolen and its blocking.
Halifax, the pensioner’s bank, refused to refund the stolen money, citing certain exceptions in the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s rules to support victims of fraud and theft.
Aldi store becomes a nightmare after pensioner has her handbag stolen and the bank refuses to helpGettyBecause the woman does not use online banking, she did not notice the £750 shortfall until her next bill.
Halifax allegedly failed to mention these transactions when canceling the card and refused to refund her money.
The bank said the woman was guilty of “gross negligence” because the thieves required the woman to enter her PIN in order to make the withdrawals, which they assumed she must have given them.
Her son-in-law, who wrote the story to This Is Money’s Helen Crane, said the woman regularly went into the store to do her shopping, so clever scammers would likely have been able to monitor her and read her PIN.
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The woman, in her eighties, reported the theft to police and had her debit card blocked before she even left the shop in Milnrow, Rochdale (not pictured).
ALDI
“I think Halifax acted unfairly and should pay my mother-in-law back the money because it was not her fault. She saved up for a holiday and now she can’t go,” he said.
Crane, a savings guru, expressed her condolences and lamented that incidents like this are very common.
She said these “cruel tactics” against the elderly have become more common recently, with thieves tracking down elderly people to catch a glimpse of their pins and then stealing from them later.
Crane disagreed with Halifax’s assessment that the elderly lady had acted with “gross negligence” and asked the bank to reconsider.
Halifax has since refunded her the money
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Fortunately, the bank has now paid her back all the money and also given her £75 as a token of goodwill and £4 for lost interest on the money – a move that left the pensioner “overjoyed”.
A Halifax spokesman said: “We have great sympathy for your mother-in-law, who was the victim of a crime.
“We spoke to her to let her know that we have refunded all the money that was withheld.”
