High Anxiety

While EU politicians deliberate over how best to prop up the Italian economy's 1.8 trillion euro debt mountain, a Tuscany vine yard owner told Ian Fraser “all that matters is family, good wine, good food and sex” and having recently read former Chief Executive of HBOS, Andy Horby has decided to take time off from corporate life, I am beginning to wonder if it is because he too shares the Tuscan vineyard owner’s views.

According to Rupert Steiner in the Mail online, Hornby has experienced a tense five years from which he has required a much needed four month stress free break before make a career move into gambling, this time at the helm of Coral the bookmakers. To facilitate this, former employer Alliance Boots, the firm behind Boots the Chemist, has seen fit to make him a payout of ”£842,000 in salary, a £750,000 bonus, a £337,000 pension payment plus £41,000 in other benefits” on his departure. In addition the firm’s accounts also reveal Hornby was paid an additional £450,000 as compensation for not being allowed to join a rival health care company where he would have been at liberty to divulge Boots secrets.

It is said Andy Hornby is in need of a "sabbatical" because he has been “a worried man who cannot concentrate on anything” and having suffered from extreme levels of debt related stress throughout the last few years myself, I can certainly appreciate exactly how this feels. However although the nation is understandably still up in arms with regard to Hornby’s contribution to the collapse of HBOS and the cost of the subsequent government rescue, my question is not directly related to this. Instead I wish to know about what it is that Andy Hornby has been worrying?

·        Is it the worry of a guilty man who is hoping he will not be discovered and, like some former HBOS employees, face the consequences with a prison sentence?

·        Is it the worry of a bought man who is between a rock and hard place because his silence has been purchased?

·        Is it the worry of a patriotic man who wishes he hadn’t played a part in bringing this country to its economic knees?

·        Or maybe, it is the worry of a man who knows I, and many more like me, have lost their homes, their health and their livelihoods as direct a result of risk management policies he supported.

Of course, I cannot begin to guess the real trigger for Andy Hornby’s worries, but in the unlikely event the latter is true, then, as far as I am concerned, absolution is simple. If Andy Hornby would just tell someone of influence in his “ old boy’s” net work that I genuinely have no means with which to repay a mortgage shortfall of £217,000 which was created by HBOS unnecessarily requesting the forced  sale of my home in 2008, I might be able to get agreement to a write off and then I could enjoy some much needed stress free time myself. 

Assuming Mr Hornby could help me get his HBOS successors to listen, I would happily forgive him the legacy of financial persecution he left behind for me when he ran for hills leaving my family and I to suffer the consequences of his board’s reckless policies towards lending and heartless directives for the people caught up in its aftermath.Unfortunately I cannot speak for the many other individuals who have suffered at the hands of an HBOS led by Andy Hornby. However, my philosophy has always been to endeavour to consume ones elephants a little bit at time and helping me could well be the first mouthful of redeeming humble pie and absolution for the allegedly stress troubled Mr Hornby as he takes up the reins in another career based on a gamble.

They say love looks forward, hate looks back and anxiety has eyes all over its head. Having been in the grips of anxiety over the welfare of my family’s future since the very beginning of the economic downturn I have come to believe worry is most definitely interest paid on trouble due before it arrives. If this is the case  I can only hope Andy Hornby’s pockets are very deep.

Dead and buried

Finding myself in something of a debt fighting lull as I await the Financial Ombudsman’s findings with regard to my complaint against HBOS, I have used the time to glean as much information as possible about HBOS's dealings to date. To my surprise, my HBOS Harassment page on face book has put me in contact with two other victims of Lloyds and HBOS skulduggery and I have been amazed to hear how much they too have suffered at the hands of this giant, too big to fail institution.

While greatly sympathising with their cases, I cannot pretend to have a full grasp of the detail. However, one thread of commonality runs throughout all. It appears no amount of communicating with HBOS or Lloyds has done anything to encourage these ivory towered bully-boys to either look objectively at what is being disputed nor embark on any remedial action for the sake of the individual.

It would seem HBOS has, for some time, had a reputation for steam rollering legal proceedings towards bankruptcy even when they are fully aware of people’s inability to pay. Reports revealing 8 out of 10 such cases should not ever have reached court in the first place do not appear to deter them and  HBOS are equally happy to bring proceedings to court for debts which are in dispute.  I understand from one lady I spoke to HBOS have attempted to repossess her home, through the courts, twenty two times.  Her dispute involves the Reading branch of HBOS where there is an ongoing police investigation which has resulted in several arrests for fraud.

Having already been taken to court to enable HBOS to obtain a possession order with which they beat through a fire sale on my home, I have been told, on more than one occasion, by Merrils Ede, their appointed solicitors, they plan to start legal proceedings towards bankruptcy because I am unable to pay the £217,000 shortfall that the HBOS instructed fire sale created. Like so many other victims of HBOS out there, it seems to be of no relevance this shortfall is in dispute and I am penniless anyway. Baring in mind how much it costs to action these proceedings I did not, until recently even begin to understand the thinking behind court cases of this nature.

However, I am now wondering if the reasoning behind a course of action such as this is simply an attempt by the individuals within HBOS to avoid losing face. I believe its quite possible I, together with all the other victims of HBOS who have disputes, have become an embarrassing legacy which needs to be dispatched, like cannon fodder, through the courts and then buried under an epitaph of “ bad debtors” in the balance sheets. I can only assume dealing with an individual’s dispute or unrecoverable debts in this way is less embarrassing to those at HBOS who have had a part in our creation and perhaps it is for this reason we have been ear marked for legal persecution. I cannot think what other reason there could be behind blindly spending taxpayers and share-holders money on cases which are doomed from the start to reap no reward.

Antonio Horta Osorio may well have asked his executives to bring out their dead but it is my belief  some of these very same people have in fact decided to bury us alive, on mass, in our trenches, without Antonio Horta Osorio ever knowing.

Careful wishes

When my daughter contracted a very visible dose of chicken pox at the age of ten, my youngest son who was age eight at the time, declared if he too caught chicken pox he did not plan to have spots above his belly button.  Smiling indulgently at his fanciful notion I was amazed to discover he had acquired exactly what he wished for only three weeks later when my daughter counted two hundred and thirty chicken pox spots and announced there was not a single blemish above the waist. 

Recalling this remarkable outcome has served to remind me of the importance of formulating my objectives for my ongoing campaign and whilst I appreciate this clarity is imperative to my success, it has become increasingly difficult to achieve recently. Initially my only objective was sanctuary from the relentless creditor bombardment but, two years on, I am still on the receiving end of the HBOS big stick despite my best efforts. For this reason I am now  unsure whether just putting an end to the HBOS beatings would be sufficient recompense for the suffering I have endured but merely a very acceptable start.

During yet another intensive morning at the debt fighting coal face with my invaluable friend Chris, I said “once more unto the breach my friend” as we took up arms in the never ending Battle of the Banks. On this occasion Merrils Ede solicitors were firmly in our sights with yet more evidence, freshly retrieved from my doormat, of their taste for victimising me convinced me their unfaltering objective was to milk their lucrative Bank of Scotland Cash Cow for as much as they can get away with. Today's correspondence shares these findings with the Financial Ombudsman Service because I firmly believe my family’s well being has been irrelevant in their dealings with me and instead provides Merrils Ede endless opportunities to line their pockets.

Aware that although Merrils Ede are only the oppressors of today, I have not lost sight of the fact it isthe Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group on which I need to focus when crystallising my game plan. 

In an ideal world I would like the following,

  ·      Public exposure of Merrils Ede and the Bank of Scotland's penchant for not differentiating between can’t pay and won’t pay. 
·        Public exposure of Bank of Scotland's unashamed abdication from their responsibilities as lenders to keep me informed on the status of our mortgage because of my wifely status. 
·        Public exposure of Lloyds Bank for joining ranks with HBOS and condoning this behaviour by flitting between the role of persecutor and administrative incompetent for three whole years.

In addition I would like to think there would be some compensation from HBOS for, 

·        Escalating a problem to ten times its original size (see International Woman’s Day) 
·        Unnecessarily repossessing our home when an alternative could have saved it and our future equity. 
·        Blatantly flaunting discriminatory practises against married women.
·        Negligently omitting to advise me to take independent legal advice separately from my husband at outset. 
·        Causing three years of relentless pain and suffering at the hands of their henchmen while fully aware of our vulnerability and our financial plight. 

Above all else, I truly and carefully wish for one thing above all else.  I wish with all my heart that through my writing, I might eventually be heard.  As wishing in this way worked for my son I am hoping, if I am very careful what I wish for, it might also work for me. In the meantime, like Henry the Fifth who tells his men as they go into battle to “set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide” I, with the help of my appointed Ombudswoman and trusty friend Chris, will battle on. 

Here's hoping careful wishes work.