A widower has spent five months trying to track down £5,000 which disappeared without trace. Pearl Heald died in March leaving the money to her grandson Peter.
Her husband, Timothy, arranged with Nationwide, where he has banked for years, for the money to be sent to the 27-year-old who lives in Nashville in the USA. But months later it had failed to arrive, reports North Wales Live.
The Caernarfon man spent almost five months trying to find out where the payment had gone after it did not arrive with his stepdaughter Sandra Jones Henry in America. In desperation he asked North Wales Live to get involved.
And just a day after the publication contacted the building society Mr Heald was called by Nationwide and told the money had been found. They have now issued an apology and offered him £200 in compensation. It also promised a full investigation would be carried out.
Mr Heald, 75, said: "I followed Nationwide’s guidance to the T in organising a transfer of the funds to my stepdaughter’s bank account in Nashville, and the £5000, plus £20 SWIFT fee were debited to my Nationwide current account on April 28 this year. My stepdaughter never received the funds."
He added: "I have been in numerous correspondence with Nationwide ever since. All the time they tell me they’re searching for the funds, and tell me they’ve given so and so a deadline to complete such and such a task. Things reached such an impasse that I involved the Financial Ombudsman, and I have just transferred all my banking business to Santander.
"Coming in the wake of our bereavement, both my late wife’s daughter in America and myself are distressed and angry at the incompetence of Nationwide in handling such a straightforward matter. But then, in a big organisation like Nationwide, nobody is to blame."
After Nationwide "found" the money, he said: "Miraculously, they’ve just found the missing £5,000. Humble apologies, plus £200 to compensate me. I’m informed that there will now be an investigation into the whole matter."
A Nationwide Building Society spokesperson said: "We apologise for the inconvenience and stress caused as a result of the delay. We have now been assured by HSBC, who process our international payments, that they have found the missing funds. We have contacted Mr Heald to pay the money into his account and have also offered him £220 compensation, which he has accepted.”
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