Couple recover £25,000 from bank

The old Moorlands Hotel, before it closed

A couple whose hotel business collapsed due to the foot and mouth outbreak six years ago have recovered £25,000 in overdraft charges from NatWest.

Alan Abrahams and his partner Valerie Knight-Gibbons were in the red for four years as they struggled to keep their hotel going on the North York Moors.

An appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service failed, so they sued instead.

Now they have banked the second of two cheques, to join thousands of other successful bank charge claimants.

"We are very elated, there is some justice in this world," said Alan.

Slow death

The couple's eight bedroom Moorlands Hotel was in Castleton, not far from Whitby in the North York Moors national park.

We always thought tomorrow would be better but it never happened Alan Abrahams

When foot and mouth disease hit the country in 2001, their business just dried up.

"It died a slow death," said Alan.

"People abandoned bookings, the following year's bookings never came through - and our debts were rising," he said.

They continued trying to stay afloat, courtesy of their overdraft with the NatWest.

"We always thought tomorrow would be better but it never happened," said Alan.

"All the time the bank was gorging itself on the account with the charges; never once did they question if we could carry on in business."

Setback

Alan described that experience as "four years of hell", especially as a repayment claim to the Financial Ombudsman in 2003 ended in failure.

Alan Abrahams and Val Knight-Gibbons with their cheques

NatWest successfully appealed against an initial award of £35,000.

The hotel finally closed in January 2005 and the couple decided to become property developers, obtaining planning permission to convert it into luxury apartments.

They have now done this and have paid off their bank debts.

In the meantime they started writing to NatWest, again asking for their money back.

They were prompted by the Office of Fair Trading's statement last year that it thought that bank overdraft charges should be reined in, just like default fees for credit cards.

Settlement

NatWest claimed that Alan and Valerie had no chance of winning in court.

It's not the money, it's the sense of achievement, getting something back that was taken from you Alan Abrahams

"The bank would throw everything in our path to put us off," said Alan.

But as with so many other claimants it eventually settled before a court hearing.

It said it would be uneconomical to contest the case and it offered the money, just £2,000 short of the full claim, as a gesture of goodwill.

A cheque for £5,126 was paid last November and another for £20,198 came last week.

"It's greatly important," said Alan.

"It's not the money, it's the sense of achievement, getting something back that was taken from you. I'm so happy."