Pensioner lost £193k to another Barclays customer after entering wrong sort code

A Cambridge resident lost his £193,000 inheritance from his father after he accidentally used sort code of another Barclays customer who refused to give the money back. Peter Teich, 74, was due to receive the inheritance amount after the death of his 100-year-old father but provided the wrong sort code to the bank.

Teich realised the error when his sister called him to confirm that she received her share of the inheritance amount but the 74-year-old didn’t receive anything in his account. He called Barclays to inquire about the money and got to know that the sum was already transferred to another customer’s account with identical account number but a slightly different sort code. The customer refused to return the amount and the bank said that Teich has to pursue the money on his own.

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Approached court 

Speaking to a global daily, Teich revealed that the bank insisted him to bear the sole responsibility in pursuing the customer since he had made the mistake while providing the sort code. Teich said that he readily acknowledged his mistake but Barclays conduct was nowhere near the error he had made. He approached the court to find the customer’s name and spent £12,000 on legal fees. After accessing the name, he further spent £34,000 to get a freezing injunction from the High Court.

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The court ordered the customer to return the full amount but Teich had already spent £46,000 to get his money back. Later, the bank agreed to reimburse the legal fees along with additional £750 compensation. “After taking a closer look at this situation, we can confirm that Mr Teich can expect the fees he has incurred to be refunded in full with interest, together with a payment for the distress and inconvenience this matter has caused,” said Barclays in a statement. Teich lamented the fact that it could have taken a few days for Barclays to recover the misdirected fund but the bank decided to do nothing.

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