Bank accused of wasting court’s time
May 4, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
One of the leading UK banks has been accused of wasting time by a judge, and has been ordered to pay the court costs of a woman that sued the bank after trying to reclaim unfair and unlawful charges that the bank had applied to her account for going overdrawn, returned cheques, and unpaid direct debits.
Lloyds TSB will have to pay court costs of £85.41 after the Bristol County Court judge, Andrew Kearney, accused the bank of ‘acting unreasonably’.
The plaintiff, Vivien Lloyd, had tried to reclaim fees that amounted to £655, but wrote to the judge after the bank spent a year wasting time before offering to refund the fees. The judge stated that the bank had no intention of defending its charges in court, and therefore accused the bank of wasting time and ordered it to pay the court costs incurred by the plaintiff.
The plaintiff had initially written to Lloyds TSB in March 2006 to reclaim her charges, many of which had been accrued by her son, Gary.
She stated: “The terrible stress it put me through – it was driving me mad. I’m absolutely ecstatic – it was our living money, our food money.”
She added that the bank had continued to refuse the refund until earlier this year, with just one week to go before the court hearing, at which point Lloyds offered her a full refund of charges.
A spokesperson for the bank stated: “We are surprised by this judgement as we firmly believe we have the right to lodge a defense in any legal action brought against us. We have been unable to trace any notification from the court about this application for a further payment of £85 and so did not have an opportunity to challenge it before it was made.”
Tom Smith
4th May 2007
