Bank drops £47,000 error case

Mrs Parish paid the money back with £7,000 interest

A woman who said she told her bank five times that they had made a £47,000 error in her favour before spending the money will not be asked to pay legal fees in the case.

Linda Parish, 50, was arrested and charged with theft from Lloyds TSB in 2001, but the criminal case was dropped on 24 January.

Mrs Parish had transferred the money - profit from selling a house in Lower Earley, Reading - into a savings account.

But she said she soon discovered that the bank had failed to debit the amount from her current account and she claimed they told her the money was hers to spend.

New house

She said: "I told them that if it was not out of my current account before the end of the week I would spend it.

"But they said 'It is your money to spend, Mrs Parish'."

She said she then spent some of the money on a new house in Cambridgeshire only to receive a demand from her bank manager for £47,000 a few weeks later.

She attended a meeting, but claimed she was told the matter would be checked at head office.

She was then arrested and charged with theft, and she said the bank obtained a court order to reclaim the money with interest and freeze her accounts.

Fees waived

A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB said the bank accepted there had been an error, but said they did not tell Mrs Parish to spend the money - and said should have paid the money back when she was asked to.

But she added: "As a gesture of goodwill we have agreed that we will waive the legal fees that remain outstanding."

John Williams, from the Crown Prosecution Service in Reading, confirmed that a not guilty verdict had been recorded on the charge of theft against Mrs Parish.

He said the prosecution had decided that it was not in the public interest to pursue the case.