TONY HETHERINGTON: PPI claims firm billed me £1,200 for £34 refund

Ms C.S. writes: Lifestyle Claims persuaded me it could reclaim my payment protection insurance premiums. Then staff said it could investigate my mortgage as well and get me a refund. 

I said I could not afford the fees, but it already had my card details from my original payment of £99, and when I got my next statement I found it had taken a further £1,199.

 I was convinced I would benefit, so I sent piles of paperwork about my mortgage, but all I got back was a letter saying Lifestyle Claims had got me a £34 refund, but I owed it a further £12. 

I paid this, but was later told by a different company, Redhawk Legal Limited, that I owed the £12 to it as they had taken over from Lifestyle Claims, yet nobody there could help me when I asked about the £1,199.

Web: Swansea has a number of linked firms which raise questions, including Redhawk

Lifestyle Claims was a scam claims management business, notorious for pocketing up-front fees and then failing to do any work in return. The Swansea company’s proper name was Client Connection Limited, and I warned in 2012 that it was in deep trouble, and some of its bosses were already switching to new companies.

It was dissolved in 2013, owing millions of pounds to 2,683 creditors, but last October it was raised from the dead by the High Court so its collapse could be fully investigated. Evidence showed that more than £12million had been stripped from the business shortly before it failed. Swansea is a well- known centre for companies that raise question marks, and many of them seem to be linked.

A director of Client Connection was Kevin Kearle, who was also a director of a local company called Money Reunited, which acted as an agent for Redhawk Legal.

Another director of Money Reunited was Gregory James, who now runs Redhawk itself. The pair quit in 2012, the company changed its name, and last year it went into liquidation.

A third director was Paul De La Mare, who headed a call centre that drummed up business for Client Connection. Two years ago he was jailed for four years when he was one of 14 people convicted of tricking people into paying for insurance on their satellite systems by posing as if they were calling from Sky. 

Redhawk Legal website

Gregory James and Kevin Kearle also set up a company in 2013, Carbon Reduction Group Limited, which was to act as a Green Deal broker, a scheme that involved arranging loans for homeowners to pay for insulation work and other energy efficient improvements.

In 2014 they handed the company over to two associates, but it never really got off the ground as it was refused authorisation by regulator the Financial Conduct Authority, whose staff had difficulty even in making contact with the business or its bosses.

It would be nice to know exactly what work Mr James and his company Redhawk did carry out for you, and whether it accepts any responsibility for work you paid for. He did not respond to repeated invitations to comment.

Why was power of attorney removed?

Ms L.B. writes: My mother has had power of attorney over my brother’s savings account with Santander for more than 20 years, but last week, when she attempted to withdraw some money from a branch, she was told her details did not appear on its system.

She was most upset as she had a bill to pay for him. She rang the bank to complain, but was told she could not do this, again because her details were not on its system. She visited her local branch, and counter staff again said she was not on its system.

The ridiculous thing is that at both branches your mother was able to produce a pass book stamped to show that she has been depositing and withdrawing money for years under power of attorney.

On her second visit, she even produced the actual legal document, at which point the manager bent the rules and allowed the withdrawal.

However, the manager added that your mother would now have to attend a meeting at Santander.

This was apparently because the bank has changed the way it operates power of attorney.

Since you contacted me, your mother, who is in her 80s, has had her meeting but it was fruitless as staff were unable to discover why she had been deleted from its records.

I asked Santander’s head office to step in, and officials there have reinstated your mother as the operator of your brother’s account. An official told me: ‘Having reviewed this incident, unfortunately the registration was removed in error.

‘We have apologised sincerely to the customer and her family. Mrs B is now registered as holding power of attorney on her son’s account and we have provided the customer with a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused.’