A 91-year-old pensioner, who was wrongly advised about how to securely invest his life savings, has won almost 200,000 pounds in compensation for bad bank advice against his local branch of Barclays Bank.
Isaac Price (91) from Llandrindod Wells, Powys, was looking for an investment which would boost his savings without putting his savings at risk to enable him to pay for his care home fees. Having banked with Barclays for over seventy years, Isaac saw one of the bank´s financial advisors who recommended moving the money into a fund primarily composed of shares.
Unfortunately the value of the shares – and the fund into which Isaac had invested his life savings – fell considerably, and Isaac saw 75,000 pounds wiped off the value of his investment. Concerned about the loss of his savings, Isaac complained to the bank, who rejected his initial claim of professional negligence – stating that they were satisfied the investment was wholly suitable at the time.
However, under pressure from Isaac´s Member of Parliament, Roger Williams, Barclays Bank were forced into a U-turn and reconsidered the case. Admitting that there were “occasional errors”, Barclays Bank refunded Isaac with the funds he had invested into the failed investment scheme and paid him the interest he would have received in a standard savings account as compensation for bad bank advice.