50 signatures reached
To: Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of England
BANK OF SCOTLAND VICTIM OF A 'SCAM'?
We demand a thorough probe into a huge raft of mortgage fraud committed using buy-to-let products from bailed-out banking group Lloyds.
Why is this important?
Many investors from 2007 were conned into buying properties that were fraudulently over-valued by third party professionals, including property developers, panel surveyors, mortgage brokers and conveyancing solicitors, all part of a scam to fleece money from high street lending institutions.
The high street lenders have repossessed many of the properties which have so far seen millions of pounds lost in shortfalls on the original mortgages. These shortfalls have been 'lost' in the accounts of the Lloyds Group and UK tax-payers should be told in detail how much all this amounts to and what steps the group has taken to recover these shortfalls.
Lloyds has protected itself by repossessing the houses of the investors who fell foul of what a member of Lloyds' Chief Executive Team termed as a 'scam', in a letter to one investor, it then repossessed.
The investor had written to challenge the bank's conduct in the whole saga that saw three of her properties re-possessed to the tune of £530,000. In its reply, the bank's official wrote: 'I disagree that BoS should be accountable for the shortfall as we were also victims of the scam.'
There are at least 22 properties in the north and north-west of England, which were all over-valued by between £100,000 and £150,000, involving investors that have been forced into repossession. Third-party professionals used by Lloyds on a daily basis have fleeced the group for millions. Lloyds meanwhile, has been able to 'write off' these 'bad debts' with no comeback or explanation on its behaviour.
British taxpayers shored up the ailing Lloyds Group, following the disastrous and scandalous way it operated its business in the lead up to the 'credit crunch' in 2008.
The public need to know exactly how the losses - in the region of £3.2 million - from this 'scam' were reported and whether Lloyds reported the 'scam' to the Police or any of the financial watchdogs and authorities.
Bank of Scotland were made aware of the 'scam' in May 2008. It is now December 2017 and the Lloyds Group has not addressed any of the questions raised by investors about its handling of the situation and hides behind jargon, data protection and its solicitors, Eversheds.
In the meantime, Lloyds continues to hand out 'performance' bonuses in the tens of millions to a raft of senior management, whilst it has taken no action in delving into the 'scam' that it said it was a 'victim' of. How shameful that it has not had the decency to work with the investors/borrowers involved in the 'scam' it too was involved in, other than to repossess their homes and push them into untold stress and misery!
Come clean Bank of Scotland - face up to the situation like the rest of us do when times get tough!
