The website at http://noel.world/ Is Noel Edmonds website covering his battles with Lloyds Bank.
http://banklloyds.claims/ is about media coverage of Noel’s fight with Lloyds.
Noel Edmonds is well known as a radio presenter from the 70s and latterly as a TV presenter and game show host. He was also a businessman who built several businesses but then lost almost everything due to the actions of his bank HBOS.
Lloyds bought HBOS bank in 2009 to rescue it from bankruptcy and with it came a Pandora’s Box of issues including corruption and deliberate damage to many of Britain’s small businesses.
What Happened
The Reading branch of HBOS carried out practices that deliberately and systematically ruined small businesses and the team led by Mark Dobson made a great deal of money from this. Mark Dobson was jailed for dishonest conspiracy in February 2017.
Tthe bank had referred small businesses to a corrupt turnaround consultancy, Quayside Corporate Services, where they were then loaded with debt and looted.
Unique, a holding company for several of Noel Edmonds’ business interests, had taken a loan that was secured against its assets, including shares in UBC, another company owned by Noel Edmonds.
When Unique needed to repay its loan, it could have sold shares to get the money but under the contract with HBOS this could only happen with agreement by HBOS. Dobson and crew refused that permission – preferring the company to go bankrupt.
It gets very complicated after that, but the courts found serious criminal behaviour had occurred and you would think that would be sufficient for Lloyds to investigate the truth and compensate those damaged by the criminality.
The circumstances of the company’s failure are now the source of a bitter dispute between Lloyds and Mr Edmonds. Noel Edmonds is seeking £300m in compensation over claims that HBOS and its disgraced former employee in Reading, Mark Dobson, deliberately destroyed Unique a decade ago.
Lloyds has faced severe criticism for its treatment of the scores of small businesses that were victims of the fraud, which may have cost the bank more than £1bn. Lloyds denied that any wrongdoing had taken place for more than a decade and refused to compensate those who were affected.
Events finally forced Lloyds to say it regretted and apologised “for the effect the criminality relating to HBOS Impaired Assets Office in Reading has had on customers and we continue to make good progress in the customer review in settling compensation, with 60 per cent of customers now having received offers”.
The bank said it was progressing with mediation in Mr Edmonds’ case “where all these points will be addressed, through the proper legal process”.
However, they have not paid up.
Bankers have only themselves to blame for the mistrust many feel towards them.
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