'Fraudsters opened a bank account in our names to process a cheque – why weren't they stopped?'

In mid-2016, a company that we held a few hundred shares in was subject to an “all cash offer” by a rival.

We voted against accepting but only 3pc of the votes agreed with ours.

On return from a stay in France, we made inquiries about the payment arrangements. Then we found that, without reference to us, it had sent out a settlement cheque by ordinary first-class post at the risk of the recipient.  

We would never have selected this method of payment and, having voted against the scheme, had not consented to it in any way. Then we discovered the cheque had been intercepted and a fraudulent account opened with the Nationwide Building Society in our names.

We complained to Equiniti that it had acted beyond its authority and, having paid dividends by BACS in the past, could have paid us in the same way. 

This complaint was rejected on the grounds that the terms of the offer were that the risk was ours.   

We also complained that Nationwide had let someone open a fraudulent account using fake or forged documents.

David Draysey, Kent

For more than 30 years you have had a legitimate account. How could Nationwide allow a fraudulent account to be opened in your name with a different address?  

In the space of a week or so, the funds were withdrawn until just £22 remained in the account. Three weeks after it had been opened and two weeks after your cheque had been deposited, the account was reviewed by Nationwide’s financial crimes team in relation to an issue affecting another customer. A week later it was closed. 

You complained to Nationwide that it had failed to exercise a duty of care and due diligence. It asserted that it had followed all proper procedures.  

It refused to disclose any further information to you but did admit to the police and the Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) adjudicator that it had not kept copies of any of the documents used to open the account. The adjudicator rejected your case.  

You escalated it to a full ombudsman. He was not impressed with some of Nationwide’s excuses. 

For example, the identification documents were supposed to have been convincing. Yet the record of them showed that they were alleged to have been issued in different parts of the world on the same day. The claim was then upheld and Nationwide repaid the £27,000 plus 8pc interest, coming to £28,935.

Nationwide insisted it followed the correct account opening processes. It doesn’t believe it acted negligently.

Equiniti said it acts on the instructions of the company it does the administration for. In this case the corporate action was a Scheme of Arrangement, the rules for which are approved by the court including those relating to payments on share transfers.

It said the terms of these transactions were communicated via an “Offer Document” that was posted to all shareholders.