Why didn’t Barclays report the fraudster who stole my £2,000 over the bank’s counter to police with the CCTV footage?
- Gavin Bailey from Gloucestershire saw £1,980 swiped in November
- Identity fraudster used his signature to withdraw cash
- The fraudster also used his name and date of birth to try and transfer £5,990
- But despite his efforts neither Barclays nor Action Fraud passed the case onto the police to investigate – describing it as ‘not a police recordable crime’
58-year-old Gavin Bailey works in Gloucestershire. In November £1,980 was withdrawn from his account in a branch in Stockport, near Manchester, by a fraudster
A Barclays customer who became a victim of identity fraud after someone walked into a branch 140 miles away from where he worked and withdrew £2,000 has described feeling ‘extremely vulnerable and incredibly stressed’ after neither the bank nor the police considered it a crime.
On 25 November 2019, Gavin Bailey, 58, from Gloucestershire, had £1,980 withdrawn from his account after someone successfully impersonated his signature in a Barclays branch in Stockport, Lancashire.
The fraudster also tried to transfer £5,990 out of his account using his personal details before the payment was blocked by the bank’s fraud team.
Gavin, the commercial director at a small manufacturing company based around half an hour from Cheltenham, tried to get both the bank and the police to look into the case, but neither did.
He even tried to get hold of Barclays’ CCTV footage himself, but the bank firstly would not give it to him and then two months later told him the footage was no longer available.
While cases of identity theft rose 31 per cent year-on-year to nearly 28,000 in the first six months of 2019, and losses due to it rose 6 per cent to £18.5million, in many instances such as Gavin’s they are not reported to the police.
Gavin reported his case to Action Fraud, the UK’s fraud reporting centre, after initially trying to go through Gloucestershire Police.
Action Fraud stated in a 19 December letter: ‘On this occasion the matter you reported to us cannot be classified as a police recorded crime.’ – these are rules set out by the Home Office.
It added: ‘The use of another person’s identity, often referred to as identity theft, is not a police recordable crime.
‘Where the details are used to obtain goods or services, we can only record a crime on behalf of the person or organisation which was defrauded as a result of the misuse of an identity.’
‘An example of a situation in which we could record a crime would be where details were used to obtain credit, the use of which left the provider of credit with a financial loss.
‘In these circumstances we would record a crime for the provider of the credit and look to establish if there was scope for the matter to be investigated.
‘Whilst the misuse of your identity cannot be classified as a police recorded crime, we do recognise that identity theft can cause significant distress and inconvenience.’
Action Fraud did not respond to a request for comment from This is Money at the time of publication.
The £5,990 payment was verified, according to the bank, by the use of Gavin’s name and date of birth, and they told the fraudster to visit a branch with two forms of ID.
While Barclays refunded the £1,980 money and gave him £100 goodwill, they also did not report the case to the police.
It said in a letter sent 15 January: ‘We wouldn’t contact the police to report an incident such as this, but we’d always be happy to support their enquiries if we are to receive contact.’
The bank added in a statement to This is Money: ‘Keeping customers funds secure is our top priority.
‘We are committed to protecting our customers and have invested significantly in anti-scam and fraud prevention initiatives.
‘We are committed to working together with other banks, payment providers, police, wider law enforcement and regulators to bear down on both scams and fraud such as this.’
Gavin told This is Money: ‘This episode has left me feeling extremely vulnerable and incredibly stressed.
‘There is still a fraudster at large who has personal information about me and who can, according to the bank’s report, produce a signature with a ‘true likeness’ to mine.
‘Surely it is only a matter of time before they target me again, yet both Barclays and the Police are unwilling to help me or to help apprehend this person.’
What about the other banks?
This is Money asked fellow big banks HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander for their stance if a similar situation happened with one of their customers.
Lloyds would report a case like Gavin’s to the police, while Santander assesses identity theft on a case-by-case basis, but would report it to the City of London Police and assist any enquiry by sharing relevant CCTV footage.