Justice and £68,000 for trader after bank fraud emptied his firm’s account – The Crusader | The Crusader | Finance

What a fantastic outcome for fraud victim Lyle Brazier, a trader helping maintain hospices and care homes, who has received £68,000 after scammers emptied the company’s account and his Tide banking service refused to reimburse, inferring it was his fault.

Ruin stalked Lyle and his Brazier Property Services’ firm every day for a year following the raid. But his punishing fight for survival after what’s known as an authorised push payment fraud (APP) paid off and justice has now been served.

Supported throughout by Crusader and following his complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, its thorough investigation and meticulously fair adjudication have now ruled in his favour.

This demonstrates what absolutely crucial role for people the independent, trustworthy arbiter can play.

It’s hard to overestimate what this means for Lyle, owner of Essex-based Brazier Property Services (BPS), his co-director wife Nichola, his workforce and his customers, who care for the most vulnerable.

He explained: “We have kept going, maintaining our high standard of work, but paying bills when your money has vanished in a flash is devastating. Family and friends rallied round when we were obliged to pay essentials like our tax bill.

“But this decision changes everything, Crusader and the Ombudsman have been brilliant, I always knew I was innocent and never shared any financial and personal details.

“The caller said they were from Tide and warned of suspicious activity on my account. They already had my password, details and payees. I didn’t give them anything, just confirmed what they said.”

After bogus instructions through Tide’s app that involved the caller saying they were freezing his card, Lyle logged back in to find £65,000 had gone to different payees. “Tide took ages to reply and there was no support,” he added.

Crusader reported on his plight last year. Tide, actually a banking platform whose clearing bank and accounts holder is ClearBank, rejected his complaint saying he had been a victim of spoofing (someone masquerading as trusted).

“The evidence … does not suggest that your account was compromised,” Tide told him, adding it had no reservations about how it had handled the case.

It also referred to the fact that it was not subscribed to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model code, the protection through which member banks refund customers for authorised push payment scams.

This meant, Tide said, it would need to track down who had taken the money, a response that left Lyle with no hope of any resolution if he left it to them.

In its report the Ombudsman, which deemed ClearBank as responsible, said it failed to raise the alarm when a large sum was transacted that was at odds with BPS’s normal payment activity and could have done more.

ClearBank was unable to supply key evidence to support its claim BPS gave away security credentials.

Monies went to two newly opened accounts within Tide/ClearBank, then were moved swiftly on.

The final amount Lyle was awarded includes 8% interest.

BPS is now with NatWest which, when the company was really struggling, took action so it could set up a new account as quickly as possible and keep trading.

“They have been excellent and straightforward, not full of smoke and mirrors,” said Lyle. “This is a fresh start for the business and my family who have been so worried. It feels so good to know we can still serve our customers and that we told the truth and have been vindicated.”

Tide and ClearBank were contacted for comment. Tide said: “We are sorry for the stress Mr Brazier suffered as a result of this fraud. Fraud prevention and detection is of the highest priority at Tide and we’re constantly improving our processes and systems in this area.

“We have a number of anti-fraud measures in place and recently added a dedicated fraud phone line 159, provided by Stop Scams UK, for all members to contact us if they believe they have been, or are at risk of fraud. Using our app, social media and email, we routinely ask our members to be on the lookout for potential scams.”

There is more hope than ever before for authorised push payment victims with new mandatory reimbursement measures for victims due in autumn this year.

Watchdog the Payment Systems Regulator said: “We want everyone to be able to make payments confidently and safely and from October 7, we will be bringing all payment firms into new mandatory reimbursement arrangements to give much more consistent protection across the board.

“Our measures will significantly increase current reimbursement rates under the CRM Code, seeing the vast majority of APP fraud victims get their money back, while placing strong incentives on banks to do more to detect and prevent APP fraud in the first place.