Seamus Gallagher (56) said that last April a clerk who works in his local branch transferred £180,000 of his savings to a fraudulent account, with details he had provided them, which he believed were those of his solicitors.
Mr Gallagher added that he had been too embarrassed about being tricked by the scam to speak out until now.
After seeking help from his bank, the financial ombudsman, Action Fraud and the States and Met Police, Mr Gallagher said he had given up hope of being reimbursed, fearing that the investigation had hit a dead end.
Last year Mr Gallagher said he contacted his bank manager at Lloyds in Broad Street asking for help in transferring money to his solicitors, who were managing the purchase of a house in Ireland on his behalf.
‘I rang up my bank manager to explain that I had never used online banking and wanted someone in the branch to transfer the money for me and check everything was OK, as I was nervous about transferring such a large amount of money on my own,’ said Mr Gallagher.
‘I went into the branch with my iPad with an email appearing to be from my solicitors with an invoice and account details attached.
‘Two girls in the bank checked the details before transferring the money. And I assumed that everything was fine, thinking that people working in the bank know what they are doing. I felt as though nothing could possibly go wrong.’
Mr Gallagher said he then went on holiday with his partner before being contacted three weeks later by his solicitors to say they had not received the money.
‘Once I heard that I nearly fainted,’ he added. It was then that Mr Gallagher became aware that the email which he believed had been sent to him from his solicitor with their account details, was a scam.
Mr Gallagher said he met his manager in Lloyds who said that there was nothing they could do to help him and they were not responsible for losing the money.
‘It feels as though they washed their hands of me,’ he said.
Commenting on the case, a spokesman from Lloyds bank said: ‘We have a great deal of sympathy for Mr Gallagher as the victim of a scam and understand that this has been very upsetting for him. Our branch colleagues made the payment in line with his authorised instructions, to the sort code and account number which he provided. Sadly it appears that Mr Gallagher’s email account had been hacked by scammers, and he had been given false details. We have provided Mr Gallagher with a significant amount of support since the scam came to light, including meeting with him in person on a number of occasions.’
