Victim of serial fraudster Mark Acklom demands £750k back from bank he used

Published

8 months ago

September 17, 2023

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A woman left penniless by notorious conman Mark Acklom is demanding her stolen money back from the High Street bank he used to fleece her.

During the police investigation, detectives arrested a Barclays bank employee and a former staff member on suspicion of a conspiracy. They had worked in the same department at Barclays.

The two – a man and a woman – were questioned and released on bail for many weeks, though they were later freed without charge.

Carolyn Woods was duped in a romance scam by serial fraudster Acklom, who wooed her and promised to marry her, telling her he was a wealthy Swiss banker called Mark Conway and a secret MI6 agent.

He was jailed four years ago and is now free, but she’s not got back any of the £750,000 she lost.

Ms Woods said: “I put my faith in the criminal justice system, but it has failed me. It just works in favour of the criminal and really doesn’t give much consideration to the victim at all.

“Acklom’s out now, no doubt living well and up to his old tricks and I’m struggling to survive. I should have explored what happened at the bank at the time, but the police advised me not to. They said it was all in their system.”

Acklom isolated Ms Woods from family and friends, then advised her to set up a new bank account with Barclays.

Citing a cash flow problem, he encouraged her to transfer money she thought were loans for building work on a plush home he had bought them.

Within a couple of months in 2012, under Acklom’s coercive control, she transferred all the money in big, sometimes daily, payments of up to £30,000 into the personal account of one of Acklom’s associates.

‘A haemorrhage of money’

Ms Woods believes the bank owed her a duty of care and should have questioned her actions and investigated the payments.

She said: “Looking back now over my bank statements, there was a total haemorrhage of money out of my account, hundreds of thousands of pounds in a matter of a few weeks, all going into one particular account.

“You would think some red flag should have been raised somewhere, I would have expected the bank to contact me.

“If they had shown some interest in me as a client, then perhaps this might not have happened. I mean, I do take responsibility myself, for part of it.”

“But I think one of the very good things that’s happened since I highlighted this sort of coercive control and wrote about it is that people are much, much more aware,” she continued.

“I was very much regarded as just a silly woman at the time. I think things have moved on a lot since then and there’s a lot more understanding about that.”

Soon after she had stopped making transfers, Ms Woods discovered some payments had been made without her authorisation.

When she queried them, she said the bank told her it couldn’t explain the missing funds but the money was paid back into her account.

Barclays then closed her account and wouldn’t say why.

Broke, homeless and suicidal

It was a year before Ms Woods realised she had been lied to and defrauded by Acklom, leaving her broke, homeless and suicidal.

She discovered Acklom’s long history of fraud and was told that far from being a rich bachelor flying in to see her from Switzerland, he had been living nearby with his wife and two young daughters.

By that time Acklom had fled abroad.

After a slow and shoddy start to an investigation, for which they later apologised, Avon and Somerset police arrested the former Barclays employee into whose account Acklom had insisted the money be paid.

He told police that he, too, had been under Acklom’s coercive control, had acted under threat and later became a potential prosecution witness.

The man told me recently: “This is a part of my life I never want to revisit, never want to talk about, never ever want to go back to. Because it was a living hell and a living nightmare for me.

“I’ve worked so hard to rebuild my mental state. I was in such a manipulative position where I could not move, could not see, could not eat, could not drink, could not do a damn thing, unless I was authorised.”

Detectives also arrested a woman who was still working for the bank and whose account had held some of the money at some stage.

When Sky News called at her home this week to try to ask her about her alleged involvement, a young man threatened to call the police. The woman appears to have since deleted her LinkedIn business profile.

During the police investigation, both suspects were questioned and bailed but later released without charge.

In a letter to Barclays Ms Woods, 62, wrote: “I realise that banking safeguards have improved since 2012/13, but some recent events have led me to believe that I wasted my time going after Mark Acklom and his accomplices through the so-called criminal justice system, and that Barclays Bank should have been held equally accountable for my losses – something I thought would follow on naturally once the case came to trial.

“There is absolutely no doubt that this crime was enabled with the help of a bank ‘insider’.”

‘There’s a strong moral argument for Barclays to pay up’

Lawyer Arun Chauhan, who sits on the Fraud Advisory Panel, a charitable body which advises the public on dealing with fraud, said Barclays had no legal obligation to refund Ms Woods anything, but there was a strong moral argument to do so.

He said: “I think Barclays need to look at it and say, ‘well if we, for example, find that our employees were involved to quite a degree and they used their internal information knowledge about how we operate to facilitate and assist the fraud,’ I think they need to stand back and ask themselves ‘should we bear any responsibility morally for this?’

“And that might well lead to them saying they should offer a goodwill payment, but they won’t make any admission of liability.

“If the events of the story took place today, I think the landscape would be very different.

“The banks are very conscious about coercive control, romance fraud, situations where people are being manipulated into making transactions, not just being tricked with false account details, but being manipulated.

“There are guidance standards about customer vulnerability, looking out for vulnerable customers.

“I think there would have been a much greater prospect of a recovery (of the stolen money) if those events happened today. And that’s really unfortunate.”

Barclays has told Ms Woods it was investigating her claim.

A spokesman told Sky News: “For confidentiality reasons we cannot comment on individual customer affairs.”

Mark Acklom, now aged 50, was jailed for five years and eight months in 2019 after pleading guilty to five of the 20 fraud charges he faced, effectively admitting he stole around £300,000 from Ms Woods.

The judge who sentenced him told Ms Woods it was “pretty unlikely” she would get any money back from Acklom.

He was freed after serving little more than two years and should have spent many more months living under licence in the UK with restrictions on his freedom and regular contact with probation officers.

But almost immediately the fraudster was extradited to Spain to complete a prison sentence he had fled from there.

The extradition judge said his UK licence period could be served concurrently with his Spanish sentence.

In agreeing to be extradited, Acklom also avoided the rare imposition of a five-year serious crime prevention order, which would have placed severe restrictions on his freedom.

The extradition judge told him there was no expectation of him returning to Britain.

Acklom was freed in Spain in May, earlier than expected. His whereabouts are unknown.

UK

Bradford: One child dies and four other people taken to hospital after house fire

Published

29 mins ago

May 5, 2024

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Bradford: One child dies and four other people taken to hospital after house fire

A child has died in a house fire in Bradford.

A woman and three other children managed to escape the property and are being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said: “At 1.08 this morning (5 May) police were called by the fire service to reports of a serious house fire on Kingsdale Drive, Bradford.

“A woman and three children managed to escape the property and were taken to hospital for treatment. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

“A fourth child was found inside the address and was sadly pronounced deceased at the scene,” police added.

“A scene is currently in place at the address and police are working with the fire investigators to establish the exact cause of the fire.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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UK

Rishi Sunak urges Tories to stick with his leadership after party suffers shock election losses

Published

6 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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Rishi Sunak urges Tories to stick with his leadership after party suffers shock election losses

Rishi Sunak has urged Tories to stick with his leadership despite the Conservatives’ shock defeat in the West Midlands mayoral election, which capped a dire few days of results for the party.

Sir Keir Starmer called it a “phenomenal result” which was “beyond our expectations” as Labour’s Richard Parker ousted Tory incumbent Andy Street, who had held the role for seven years.

The margin of victory was a cruelly tight 1,508 votes, and compounded Conservative disappointment as it followed another loss to Sadiq Khan in London, who secured a record-breaking third term as the capital’s mayor.

Local elections live
The mayoral election results

“People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour. Our fantastic new mayor Richard Parker stands ready to deliver a fresh start for the West Midlands,” Sir Keir said.

However, in an effort to win back those who had deserted his party over Labour’s stance on Gaza, he added: “I say directly to those who may have voted Labour in the past but felt that on this occasion that they couldn’t that across the West Midlands we are a proud and diverse community.

“I have heard you. I have listened. And I am determined to meet your concerns and to gain your respect and trust again in the future.”

Labour suffered losses to independents and George Galloway’s Worker’s Party of Britain in areas with large Islamic populations as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.

But the party virtually swept the mayoral elections board across England, winning in Liverpool, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham returned to power.

The Tees Valley was the only remaining splash of blue left on the mayoral election map, where Lord Ben Houchen managed to cling to power despite a huge 14.1-point swing to Labour.

Lord Houchen’s victory was also mired by allegations he had sought to distance himself from Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party at large during his campaign.

Losing Mr Street, who is widely respected in the Tory Party and had an impressive track record of bringing investment into the West Midlands, is a body blow to the prime minister.

Despite the drubbing, Mr Sunak urged his party to stick with his leadership and his plan for government.

In a statement, he said: “It’s been disappointing of course to lose dedicated Conservative councillors and Andy Street in the West Midlands, with his track record of providing great public services and attracting significant investment to the area, but that has redoubled my resolve to continue to make progress on our plan.

“So we will continue working as hard as ever to take the fight to Labour and deliver a brighter future for our country.”

However, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, was quick to lay the blame for Tory losses firmly at the door of Number 10.

But she said ousting Mr Sunak “won’t work”, adding: “The hole to dig us out of is the PM’s, and it’s time for him to start shovelling.”

She urged him to adopt “strong leadership, not managerialism” on tax, migration, small boats, and law and order.

But Mr Street took a different view, encouraging the party not to veer to the right.

Asked if he is worried the party is drifting to the right and over-emphasising the threat from Reform UK while “ignoring other voters”, the outgoing mayor told Sky News: “I would definitely not advise that drift.

“The psychology here is really very straightforward, isn’t it? This is the youngest, most diverse, one of the most urban places in Britain, and we’ve done, many would say, extremely well over a consistent period,” Mr Street said.

“The message is clear: winning from that centre ground is what happens.”

Results are in from 106 of the 107 councils in England that held elections on 2 May, and Labour has won 1,140 seats, an increase of more than 200.

The Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100.

The Tories were just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400.

UK

Conservative Andy Street suffers shock loss to Labour in West Midlands mayoral race in blow to Rishi Sunak

Published

17 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Conservative Andy Street suffers shock loss to Labour in West Midlands mayoral race in blow to Rishi Sunak

Tory incumbent Andy Street has suffered a shock defeat to Labour in the West Midlands mayoral election after a partial recount was ordered.

Labour’s Richard Parker beat Mr Street by just 1,508 votes – 0.25% – to deliver a major blow to Rishi Sunak in the key electoral battleground after a hammering in the local elections.

With the race neck-and-neck, in the end it came down to the results in one borough – Labour-supporting Sandwell.

“This is the most important thing I will ever do,” Mr Parker said in his acceptance speech.

“I promise you that I will deliver jobs,” he added.

He told Sky News he would take buses “back into public control” and deliver the “largest programme of social housing we’ve had in this region for more than 40 years”.

And he thanked his predecessor, who he said had “led this region through a number of great challenges and you deserve great credit for that”.

Mr Street told Sky News he was “personally devastated”, had “put my all into this”, and “genuinely believed we were making real progress across the region”.

He said it was “my campaign, totally”, adding: “I’m not going to try to push responsibility anywhere else. There’ll be no sloping shoulders from me.”

He wished his successor “all strength and wisdom”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “phenomenal result” and “beyond our expectations”.

He added: “People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour.

“My changed Labour Party is back in the service of working people, and stands ready to govern.”

Local elections live
The mayoral election results

Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator, said it was a “significant victory”.

She added: “Right across the country people have voted for change and the message is clear – it’s time for a general election and a Labour government to get our country’s future back.”

Labour’s Sadiq Khan has secured a historic third term as London mayor with a convincing win over Conservative rival Susan Hall.

These results will increase pressure on the prime minister, who had been hoping for a repeat of the success enjoyed by Conservative Ben Houchen who held on as the mayor of Tees Valley.

Sam Coates, Sky News’s deputy political editor, said he had seen messages from Conservative MPs’ WhatsApp group.

One from former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, whom Coates said “wants Rishi Sunak to leave”, said: “These results are awful and should be a massive wake-up call.

“If we fight the same campaign in a few months [in the general election] we’ll get the same outcome or rather worse.

“Reform UK standing more candidates will cause greater damage.”

The loss of either the Teesside or West Midlands mayoralties would give Tory rebels who want to change leader a “huge amount of fuel”, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said in the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

Mr Street, who was seeking a third term in office, sought to distance himself from the Conservative brand during his campaign and instead ran on a personal platform.

Sky News recently revealed that Mr Street was sending out election literature with an endorsement from former prime minister Boris Johnson which urged people to “forget about the government”.

His campaign website also made no mention of Mr Sunak on its homepage and was coloured in green rather than Conservative blue.