NatWest refund their customer £10,000 plus interest after allowing him to send money to a scam investment

Mr. Garga was a victim of an Authorised Push Payment (APP) investment scam, where his bank failed to notice and prevent his funds from being sent to a scam investment.

Within nine months Mr Garga sent a total of £10,000 to a scam investment, Marshbell Limited via Northern Provident. He believed at the time that the funds would be used for a genuine investment.

How did the scam occur?

Around October 2020, Mr. Garga was in search of new investment opportunities and had read several articles about increasing interest for ESG investments in the UK and globally.

Mr. Garga discussed investments with his colleagues who were investing in new companies. They discussed the investment opportunity in Marshbell Limited. Mr. Garga was interested so he carried out his own research on the company and checked their website.

He found positive reviews from people who had invested and received returns (albeit monthly interest). Mr. Garga found no concerns, so he decided to invest with them. Mr. Garga also received a brochure about the company and the investment strategy based on loans being less than half of asset values .

He was offered a two-year fixed rate bond offering a return of 10%. Mr Garga was required to sign an invoice before receiving his shares. After making the payments Mr. Garga received his bond certificates and account status, after each payment was made.

When Mr. Garga’s first investment bond had come to the end of its term, Marshbell wrote to him and said they would be in touch and not to worry and that Mr. Garga would get his funds back.

Mr. Garga didn’t realise it was a scam until last year when Zorro Finance took over Marshbell and they weren’t answering calls or responding to emails so he realised they were unlikely to return his funds. In early 2024, Zorro informed all their Marshbell investors that they were insolvent and no funds would be returned to them.

Recovering the money from the scam

After making a formal complaint to his bank, NatWest, Mr. Garga was told that the bank could not consider any liability and labelled the matter a dispute between the two parties as the company went into Liquidation.

The bank said that the payment was made by Mr. Garga and there were no concerns from them at the time in relation to the payment.

Our specialist fraud and scams team investigated this case on behalf of Mr. Garga and identified alternative routes of being able to recover the money lost to the scam. Oakwood Solicitors were able to recover his full losses of £10,000 plus interest for Mr. Garga.

Mr. Garga is delighted with the outcome Oakwood Solicitors have obtained for him and has now received money he thought he would never see again.

Further reading

Bank fraud and scam claims – Oakwood Solicitors

WHAT TO DO NEXT

Get in touch today for a no-obligation consultation. Choose one of the methods on the right-hand side of this page, or call us on 0113 200 9720 to find out how we can help you.