Mr R Snr complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) that M&G Securities twice wrongly withdrew his money at the request of his son, Mr R Jnr.
The financial services company is a subsidiary of asset manager M&G Investments.
The FOS report did not state in which product(s) Mr R Snr had invested, nor how Mr R Jnr requested the withdrawals.
After Mr R Jnr made the withdrawal requests, M&G sent cheques to Mr R Snr’s house in August and November 2016, but they were intercepted by his son.
The elder Mr R complained to M&G that it had failed to verify that the withdrawal requests were legitimate.
M&G rejection
M&G responded that it had acted in accordance with its terms and conditions and anti-fraud proceedings.
The company said it sent the cheques in the correct name to the correct registered home address. Before sending the money, it attempted to contact Mr R Snr in order to verify the electronic transfer requests.
Unable to reach him, M&G sent the cheques.
The company said the dispute is between Mr R Snr and his son.
Ombudsman sympathy
In his complaint to the FOS, Mr R Snr admitted to having similar problems with his son and other providers in the past. He was, however, able to retrieve some of the money stolen by his son.
Expressing sympathy for Mr R Snr’s situation, ombudsman Dara Islam declined to uphold the complaint.
“I’m satisfied the business acted in accordance with its terms and conditions in processing the requests.
“I don’t think the business was aware that Mr R Snr hadn’t completed or authorised either of the requests… If the cheques were intercepted by his son, I don’t think I can blame the business for this.”
Islam wrote that based on the evidence, “it doesn’t look like the business was ever told that Mr R Snr had a son with the exact same name or that his son had done something like this, or was likely to, necessitating additional checks, in response to any withdrawal requests made by him”.
He added: “Only Mr R Snr would have known whether his son was likely to do something like this, and so perhaps it would have been sensible for his to notify the business in advance.”
The ombudsman’s report confirmed that Mr R Snr had involved the police and that M&G Securities was assisting with the enquiries.
