Elgin business owner makes plea for help after Nationwide locks accounts

AN Elgin business owner says she is "desperate for any help" after her bank locked all four of her accounts.

Nina Lucas, owner of NinaHQ in Elgin, saw her two current accounts, ISA and credit card all locked by Nationwide on September 19.

The bank informed her that the accounts were locked due to a suspicious credit of £170 to one of her current accounts the day before.

Nationwide said that the payment would need to be investigated and that Mrs Lucas would need to wait until October 20 at the earliest for a response.

"I just want to try and get them to respond earlier," she said.

"The amount of times I've just been on hold and being told that I just need to wait, but when you've got your kids to feed and your husband is in the RAF and he's going away, it's not that simple.

"My insurance is due for my storage, my rent for my studio is due, my electric for my studio is due. I have no money to pay for anything. Even small things like Audible have bounced."

On Monday (September 25) she received a phone call from a local woman who said that her account had been hacked and that Mrs Lucas' was one of the accounts to be credited with a sum of money.

Mrs Lucas said: "She knew a payment was sent to me so wanted to give me the Action Fraud case number that is dealing with the situation, and suggested I send this to my bank and then maybe my account blocking would be lifted.

"So it turns out someone else's account was hacked and somehow their account dispersed money to people and £170 of that went into my account.

"But they still won't let me access my accounts until they have investigated every single payment because they've effectively said that the £170 is fine now but now they're suspicious of every transaction on my account.

"They can't give an explanation for it. All of this is because of this £170 which I have nothing to do with."

Mrs Lucas has since gone to the Nationwide branch in Elgin in person but despite their best efforts they haven't been able to help either.

The family has now been forced to go into Mrs Lucas' husband's overdraft but with her accounts likely to remain locked for another three weeks, she says this isn't sustainable.

"I have no money for the weekend," she said.

"To run a household, to feed a family. I have the fuel in my car. I could possibly get my husband to pay for more but that means he will encounter charges and fees from his bank for going on to credit cards and overdrafts.

"I'm in debt to people. I've never been in debt. I pride myself on not using overdrafts, on always paying bills in advance.

"The fact I'm self employed makes things worse because I cannot withdraw any cash because I don't have payslips to show."

Nationwide has been approached for comment.