Barclays Financial Planning have been forced to refund more than £157,000 to a terminally ill man who was mis-sold a 5 years structured product. The case was succesfully brought by Mackenzie Financial Planning based in Bury.

Paul Jones of Mackenzie Financial Planning took on the case after the man's 77 year old widow made contact with him after discovering that her deceased partner's £150,000 had not been placed within a cash account as per their request.

Barclays Financial Planning knew full well that he was terminally ill and he said he required a cash account. The husband who was aged 75, already had an existing cash account with Barclays but, according to Paul Jones, was concerned over the banking crisis. Believing that only £35,000 of the £250,000 on account would be protected and/or ringfenced should the bank fail. He requested a second account.

However what happened thereafter was the the Barclays advisor placed him in a Barclays Defined Return Plan, administered by Woolwich, which he advised the husband and wife was was a cash account. The husband passed on some 12 months later and when his wife attempted to withdraw the money she discovered there was no cash account.

The Barclays adviser refused to provide the wife wife with key facts relating to the plan so she then contacted Mr Jones. A full 12 months passed before we were able to obtain the documents from Barclays.

We then complained to Barclays, which ruled in favour of the couple. Paul Jones had been involved for 15 months when the matter was finally resolved in March. The money was returned in April.

The Ombudsman ordered Barclays to return £150,000 to Paul Jones client along with £7,118 in interest. Barclays offered their sincerest apologies for any undue stress caused to the widow while also apologising for the length of time to resolve. Mindful that it took Barclays 12 months to produce documents. Apparently Barclays 'take on board what went wrong and work to ensure the lessons are learned.’

Copyright © 2010 First Mortgage Trust