A 91-year-old Dundee woman who had her bank account emptied by criminals died just weeks after the news was broken that her life savings were gone.
Isabella Robertson, whose funeral took place in the city on Thursday, lost almost £12,000 after thieves gained access to her card and details.
Her family discovered 152 separate debits over the space of just a few days to online gambling sites.
Richard Robertson, 66, is now calling for a full investigation into how the TSB bank failed to notice that his vulnerable mother was being bled dry.
He also wants to know why, despite being alerted by the family, it took days for the bank to freeze her account.
They say that delay enabled the criminals to continue targeting Mrs Robertson, siphoning-off as much as £6,000 more and effectively closing her account.
Speaking to The Courier shortly after returning to Dundee for his mother’s funeral, Mr Robertson said: “My mother had dementia but otherwise seemed to be in good health.
“She was understandably distressed when news was broken to her that her account had been attacked and she died last week.
“We will never know what contribution the stress of having her life savings fraudulently taken from her made to her death.”
Mr Robertson said he intended to contact the Financial Ombudsman as he believes there is something “far wrong” with the TSB’s service.
He said the family had only become aware of the crime when his mother’s mail was redirected after she was transferred to the Harestane Nursing Home in Dundee.
“If I hadn’t done that we would never have known,” he said.
“My mother was 91 and no gambler, but despite 152 debits in the space of a few days, most to a bookmaker, the bank’s fraud prevention team failed to notice that anything was wrong.
“We cannot understand why TSB’s systems did not flag up such extreme multiple debits to a bookmaker over just 11 days as this was obviously unusual activity for her account.”
After raising concerns with the bank, Mr Robertson received a swift response from TSB customer relations.
In it, the bank said that a review had found “no mistakes” had been made but added that “we always welcome customer comments”.
Mr Robertson said he had found the response “shocking”, adding that: “TSB seem to be in denial. I am concerned that without a proper investigation this could happen again.
“I am aware that my concerns had not even been passed to their fraud team. All I received was a standard letter from the bank’s customer relations team.
“I will be making strong efforts to bring TSB to account for this dreadful business.”
The Courier contacted the TSB in the wake of Mr Robertson’s complaint and was told that as he had not been a signatory on his mother’s account and had no power of attorney for her, it had been unable to respond further to his concerns.
A spokesman added, however, that in light of Mrs Robertson’s death and the fact that her son was now the executor of her account, the bank’s fraud team could begin an investigation into the transactions.
A statement from the bank subsequently said: “We’re sorry to hear that Ms. Robertson was a victim of fraud.
“We are actively looking into the matter, and working to see how we can help Ms. Robertson’s family. We take all allegations of fraud very seriously and have a number of steps in place to protect our customers.”
The family has no idea how criminals in England came to be in possession of Mrs Robertson’s bank details, though they said her bank card had gone missing.
Veronica Gibson, who is director the Priority Care group that runs the Harestane Nursing Home, said she was horrified to hear of what had happened.
She told The Courier: “Having discussed this with our home manager, she has confirmed that having been notified by Isabella’s son of possible online fraudulent activity relating to her bank account, we immediately contacted the police and other relevant bodies.
“I can also confirm that at the time of Mrs Robertson’s admission to Harestane, no bank or credit cards were with her belongings.”
The fraud is being looked into by the police.