The Bank Job

Last update: Fri, Oct 24, 2003

The Law is an Ass
An article found in the London Times dated March 7th, 1999

Jail for customer who challenged bank's blunders
by Robert Winnett

A TRADING standards officer who "loved to show that big companies make mistakes" has been jailed for six months after trying to highlight a catalogue of errors on his family's Abbey National accounts.

Kevin Scranage and his father Keith held accounts with National & Provincial building society. When N&P was taken over by Abbey National in 1996, the two accounts were mistakenly merged under Kevin's name. Keith wrote to the company three times and Kevin rang the bank to ask for the problem to be rectified.

When it failed to sort out the mix-up over the two accounts, Kevin withdrew all the money -12,161 UK pounds - in his name.

He then helped his father write letters to the banking ombudsman and Abbey National complaining about the inept handling of the account and inquired how his father's money had disappeared.

The bank investigated and discovered about a year later that Kevin had the money. It contacted the police and, even though Kevin had withdrawn money from an account in his name, he was arrested and charged first with theft and then for "obtaining a money transfer by deception".

In his defence, Kevin maintained he was trying to highlight Abbey National's incompetence when he withdrew the money, which he repaid when police were called.

At his trial, virtually all the facts were agreed, Kevin's only real contention being that he had not "dishonestly" withdrawn the money from his account. His father fully supports his actions and asked for charges to be dropped.

Keith said yesterday: "We all just got sick and tired of the Abbey National failing to rectify the problem. My son simply took it upon his shoulders to make a stand, and he has certainly paid the price."

In court, Kevin received glowing references from his former work colleagues. In a statement, one said: "He is principled to the point of stupidity."

Another added: "I am certain that his actions were designed solely to embarrass and inconvenience an inefficient organisation. Kevin's integrity and honesty are in my opinion beyond any doubt".

His crime was to withdraw money he knew to be his father's and last month, by a majority verdict, a jury convicted Kevin of obtaining a money transfer by deception. Judge Bruce Macmillan at Bolton Crown Court sentenced him to six months in prison, despite his previous good character.

Kevin said: "I wanted to draw attention to serious inadequacies in the bank's procedures. I kept meticulous files of what I was doing and sent them to the banking ombudsman - hardly the actions of a fraudster. With hindsight my actions were foolish as I have lost my job, home and freedom as a result."

Janet Anderson, his local MP, now intends to take up Kevin's case with Abbey National.

However, the bank believes it was right to call the police as a crime was subsequently proved to have been committed.

A spokesman for the Abbey National said: "We're not able to discuss cases such as this, which are being investigated by the ombudsman. But it appears the court, which has heard the full story, was able to decide that Kevin Scranage had perpetrated fraud against his father."

Isn't the law an absolute ass? It cost the rest of us between 400 and 500 UK pounds per week to keep Kevin in prison. Why? because he dared to tweak the nose of the mighty. In Britain you really are supposed to be sycophantic and servile. (Note it was another pathetic majority verdict by a jury).

Well, after release Kevin obtained an appeal hearing and his conviction was quashed, he took County Court action against Abbey National forcing them to return money they had hung on to which belonged to him. He won an action for wrongful dismissal against his former employers but they are now using public money to contest the award.

A complaint to the Banking Ombudsman has led to no formal response. A complaint to the Police Complaints Authority resulted in them claiming his complaint was unjustified. Kevin says that he can prove police officers lied, but he has learnt that any action by the PCA resulted in the police investigating the police - so what could he expect. He wrote to all 659 MPs asking them if they thought it acceptable for police officers to lie. Around 70 replied but only about six wrote back and said it was NOT acceptable for police officers to lie. An application to the Home Office for compensation for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment was refused.

He continues to fight for real justice but finds getting legal help near impossible.

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