Wigan pensioner’s anguish over missing £23k

Sandra Oxley has been fighting tooth and nail with Halifax after the huge sum of money, which had been left to her in her aunt’s will, was mysteriously withdrawn by an anonymous person.

The 71-year-old from Marsh Green was given the inheritance in 1996, and invested it into a Halifax “Liquid Gold” account. She left the money untouched in the account for many years, having prioritised other matters including the deaths of several family members in quick succession.

But when she finally visited the bank’s Market Place branch to access the funds, she was stunned to hear that the account had been emptied in 1998. A mystery person had taken all but £6 of the money, which the bank later donated to a charity.

The cash had been taken out over several transactions, and Mrs Oxley was able to prove to the bank that it could not have been her as she was in hospital on all the dates.

She made her first official complaint over the matter in 2015, but four years on she is still no closer to finding out who took the money. She is losing hope that she will ever see a penny of it again, and was dumbfounded as to who else could have accessed the bank account.

“I’ve been fighting and fighting and fighting,” she said.

“I left it for ages, because I lost 11 members of my family and had to bury them.

“I just want to get the money my aunt left for me. They say it has been taken out with a passbook, systematically, until there was only £6.57 left which they donated to charity.”

She added: “It’s been terrible, plus I was only recently diagnosed with cancer. My husband has Parkinson’s and cancer. We’ve got on with our lives, but I want this money back because I am sick of this.”

A spokesman for Halifax said: “Whilst we sympathise with Mrs Oxley and her situation, the length of time between the last counter transaction in 1998 and receiving her complaint in 2015 has made it very difficult to investigate the matter.

“This is because, in line with our regulatory obligations, transaction documentation from 1996 to 1998 has been destroyed.

“However, we recommend that if Mrs Oxley believes she is the victim of theft that she continues to pursue the matter with the Police.”

Mrs Oxley has also reported the matter to Action Fraud and the police.