Victim of serial fraudster Mark Acklom demands £750k back from bank he used
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.
Carolyn Woods was cheated out of all her savings
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.”
Read more:
Conman: The life and crimes of Mark Acklom
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.”
Acklom duped Ms Woods into thinking he was a wealthy Swiss banker and a secret agent
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.
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Prolific British conman: The life and crimes of Mark Acklom
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’.”
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A story of love and deception by a conman
‘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.”
Ms Woods was cheated out of all her savings by Acklom
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
Brixham: Warning ‘heads are going to roll’ after water parasite outbreak – as ‘nearly every house in one close has someone ill’
Thousands of homes have had their boiling water restrictions lifted after a water tank infected with cryptosporidium was drained and cleaned, South West Water has said.
About 16,000 households in the Brixham area of Devon were told to boil their drinking water following 46 confirmed cases of the disease.
On Saturday afternoon South West Water lifted the boiling restrictions for 14,500 homes after water quality monitoring results found no traces of cryptosporidium in the Alston supply area.
Cryptosporidiosis is caused by a tiny parasite and can lead to vomiting, stomach cramps and watery diarrhoea lasting about two weeks.
More cases are expected to be confirmed due to a delay in developing symptoms – and about 100 more people around Brixham were reporting signs of it on Friday.
South West Water believes the parasite probably entered supplies through a damaged pipe in a field containing animal faeces.
A contaminated water tank at Hillhead reservoir, where cryptosporidium was detected, was drained overnight and “thoroughly cleaned” on Saturday, South West Water said.
One local resident said she knew of only four houses out of 21 in Raddicombe Close, on the outskirts of Brixham, which have not had at least one person fall ill with cryptosporidiosis.
The local MP has warned “heads are going to roll” over the incident.
Tory MP Anthony Mangnall, whose constituency includes Brixham, told LBC: “This is such a serious matter that yes, I think heads are going to roll over this.”
He claimed the supplier had been too slow to issue its safety alert.
16,000 businesses and residents are affected by the boil water notice. Pic: South West Water
Mr Mangnall said: “From starting this week with a denial from South West Water that it was anything to do with them, delaying the fact that the boil water notice came in – meaning thousands of people used the water network – to then issuing it on Wednesday, and there are a lot of people who are very ill.”
He called it an “absolutely disastrous week” and said locals were furious.
South West Water has said it’s “deeply sorry” and that it’s been “working tirelessly” to identify the source of the problem and fix it.
Bottled water stations have been set up in the area.
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What we know about parasite found in drinking water
Parasite outbreak has ‘destroyed’ business
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused the government of not doing enough to hold water companies to account.
He told Sky News the firms were “putting profit over the environment, over public health” after multiple cases of sewage being released into rivers and seas.
“We [Liberal Democrats] wouldn’t wait for fines for pollution,” Sir Ed said.
“There should be a sewage tax on the profits of these water companies so we can get the money now.
“There needs to be much tougher regulation… and we may need to look at restructuring the whole water industry.”
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Kelly Holmes joins anti-sewage protest
It comes as dozens of protests over sewage releases were planned for Saturday.
Surfers Against Sewage is promoting “paddle-out” demonstrations at 30 locations, with Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes among those at the event in Brighton.
The confirmed cases of a waterborne disease caused by a parasite have more than doubled.
There are now 46 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhoeal illness, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said – with more than 100 further people reporting similar symptoms in the Brixham area.
Other reported cases of diarrhoea and vomiting in residents and visitors to the south Devon town are also under investigation. Hundreds of locals have also reported feeling unwell over the last two weeks on social media.
MPs and South West Water officials have confirmed the parasite most likely entered water supplies through animal faeces, but an investigation is still ongoing.
What is cryptosporidiosis disease?
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‘Cow faeces’ infected Devon water
The UKHSA first confirmed cases of the disease at around midday on Wednesday, while locals were initially told by South West Water that their tap water was uncontaminated and safe to drink.
But after testing supplies in the Hillhead reservoir, the water company found “small traces” of the parasite cryptosporidium – which causes cryptosporidiosis – and told residents in parts of Brixham and Alston to boil their drinking water on Wednesday.
A total of 16,000 households and businesses in Brixham, Boohay, Kingswear, Roseland and North West Paignton were impacted and offered £15 compensation at first.
Over the next two days, South West Water apologised to those affected and increased the offer to £115. Amid the chaos, one primary school closed its doors on Thursday due to not having safe running drinking water.
16,000 businesses and residents are affected by the boil water notice. Pic: South West Water
‘Very hard questions for water company’
Speaking to Sky News yesterday, South West Water’s chief customer officer Laura Flowerdew confirmed it was likely a broken air valve contaminated by animal faeces that had caused the outbreak.
However, she refused to give a timeframe on how long the incident would be ongoing – leaving thousands of residents facing an uncertain future.
Speaking on Friday at the University of Exeter, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said there will be “very, very hard questions” for South West Water over the outbreak.
“At the moment I think we probably need to give them the space to conduct their investigation; we know that they have identified the source,” she said.
“The public will want to know how on earth that source happened, what was the chain of events that led to this, because of course we all understand the expectation that we all have when we turn our taps on is that [we get] clean drinking water and we want to be able to trust it.”
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Most cases of cryptosporidiosis pass in two weeks. Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. File pic: Dr_Microbe/iStock
‘Expect to see more cases’
Totnes MP Anthony Mangnall also warned the boil notice could last “at least a further six or seven days” and called for more transparency.
Professor Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology at the University of East Anglia, told Sky News if the parasite was “a continuous thing” present in water supplies for a prolonged period, then “you’d expect to see more cases” for another two weeks.
It comes as hotel owners in the area told Sky News the outbreak has led to people cancelling their stay, while a head chef said “I can’t wash salad in the sink”.
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‘Destroyed our business’
Stephen Colemansfield, owner of Redlands Guest House in Brixham, told Sky News the outbreak has “destroyed our business at the moment”.
“Our guests have cancelled because of the mixed messages that are being sent out by South West Water.”
Rob, head chef at the Steam Packet Inn in Kingswear near Dartmouth, also said his brother-in-law is one of the 46 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis and has been sick for two weeks.
The UKHSA is working with Torbay Council, South West Water, NHS Devon and the Environment Agency on the incident.
Colin Smith carries a small suitcase into the dining room of their Newport home and lays it flat on the table in the centre of the room. He pops open both latches.
His wife Jan reaches inside and pulls out a sky blue child’s blanket. She holds it close to her face, closes her eyes and inhales deeply.
“It still smells of him,” she says, softly.
“This is the blanket he was wrapped in when he died.”
Their son, also called Colin, was just seven years old when he died in January 1990. His tiny body was ravaged by Hepatitis C and AIDS.
The suitcase, much like the one most families used to own in the 1980s, is just big enough to hold all the memories of their son’s short life.
Next to the blanket, are his favourite toys including a snow globe and lots of his artwork.
Jan and Colin Smith look through the suitcase containing their son’s possessions
Jan explains that Collin, loved to paint and draw and that he was very talented.
“He was 13 pounds when he died. That’s nothing is it for a seven-year-old?” Jan asks.
The question goes unanswered as a momentary silence fills the room.
Colin was born with haemophilia. The treatment for his blood clotting disorder included a product called Factor VIII.
What his parents didn’t know was that the Factor VIII was made in America using blood farmed from prisoners, drug addicts and sex workers.
Jan can recall all the fine details of that day clearly. Especially the cold, matter-of-fact way the bombshell news was delivered by doctors treating Collin.
“We went to the hospital,” Jan says, and they called us out into a corridor, kids running around, parents, and just told us that Colin had become [infected with] HIV.”
By this time their beautiful little boy had become very sick.
Colin Smith with his toys
‘You just couldn’t pick him up’
Colin senior is still haunted by the effect the virus had on his son’s body. ‘You could see every sinew and tendon in his body,” he said.
Jan said: “I think it was about ’89 that we realised because the weight loss was incredible. And we had him home for a little while, and you couldn’t just pick him up.
“We had to use a sheepskin because it hurt him. He would say: ‘Mum you’re hurting, it’s hurting’.”
Colin was treated by Professor Arthur Bloom, who died in 1992. But in the 1980s, he was one of the country’s leading haemophiliac specialists.
However, documents shown at the Infected Blood Inquiry prove Bloom’s research carried great risks and these were never explained to Colin’s parents.
Professor Arthur Bloom, who died in 1992, was one of the country’s leading haemophiliac specialists
There is a record of the first time Colin went into hospital that shows that he had never been treated for his haemophilia at this point.
Previously untreated patients were known to be useful for research as their responses to new treatments could be tracked. Patients exactly like Colin.
Also shown to the Infected Blood Inquiry was a letter from Prof Bloom to a colleague after another visit by Colin to hospital saying he’s been given Factor VIII and acknowledging that even though this was the British version there was still a risk of Hepatitis but that “this is just something haemophiliacs have to accept”.
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And a letter, dated 24 June 1983, from Prof Bloom to colleagues discusses the risk of AIDS. They accept that one possible case of AIDS has been reported.
Colin’s parents are convinced their son was being used in secret trials.
Colin Smith
“I think Colin was just unlucky enough to be born at the right time. Newly diagnosed haemophiliac, never been treated,” his father explained.
“Which is what we were after, because as documentation states that they are cheaper than chimpanzees, you know. You treat a chimp once, you can follow these children throughout their lives. And that’s what was going on.
“And this was going on from the ’70s. Colin was born in 1982. Yet they still infected him. How do you justify that?”
His mother said that they trusted the doctors at the time and never questioned their son’s treatment. “Just when we think back – at the time no, we didn’t. But when we think back, it was just blood tests. Blood tests, blood tests, blood tests.”
Hate campaign
The threat of HIV and AIDs was only just emerging. And this ignorance drove a hate-fuelled campaign against all those impacted.
This stigma forced Colin and Jan to move home and be shunned by some of their own community. All while still caring for their dying son.
“It became public when he needed to start school, for nursery, and all the parents protested and said: ‘We’re not having an AIDS kid in this school’, because we’ve been known as the AIDS family. We had AIDS that were [written] on the house and you’re not talking little.
“Well, it was like six-foot letters ‘AIDS DEAD’, we had crosses scraped into the door. The phone calls in the middle of the night were not very nice. They were the worst.”
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As Colin’s condition deteriorated his parents decided to bring him home for what would be his last Christmas with the family. It was against the wishes of Prof Bloom.
Jan and Colin were told haemophiliacs with AIDS should die in hospital and be cremated quickly. But the family ignored the hospital.
“And you know what,” Jan says. “He asked for a bike. And we actually got him a bike. He never rode it, obviously because he was too ill. But he wanted a bike. And I’m not going to not get him a bike. Because they all have bikes. But Colin never, never even sat on one.”
Colin Smith spent his last Christmas at home, against the wishes of Professor Bloom
That difficult decision to remove Colin from hospital to spend his last days with his family at home proved to be the right one.
“He was on my lap and he just got up to you, didn’t he?” Jan says looking at her husband. “He said: ‘I can’t see, daddy. I can’t see’. And then he just lay back. My hand was on his chest.
“And, you know, for a mother to actually feel the rise and fall of his chest. Waiting for it to stop. Because that’s what I was doing.
“I was waiting for it to stop. And then it stopped. And I just said: ‘I think he’s gone’. And I remember shaking him a little bit, but he’d gone.”
Jan and Colin Smith speaking to Sky News
‘I want my son to have his name back’
On Monday, Sir Brian Langstaff will deliver the long-awaited report into the infected blood scandal.
It has taken campaigners like Jan and Colin decades to achieve this. They are clear on what this report must say and how the government must respond.
Colin senior lives with the guilt of not protecting his son. He wants accountability.
“I want justice to be served properly not hypothetically. Let’s see the people who did this, hopefully criminal charges. It is manslaughter at least. I gave my son over to his killers, you know, and I can’t get to grips with that,” he says.
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Blood scandal ‘the worst thing’
For Jan, it will be recognition for a lifetime of heartbreak and grieving.
“I want people to recognise my son. And I want to be able to go to the cemetery and say, we’ve done it. And you’ve done it. That’s what I want. And I want an apology.
“People say it’s the money, it’s not the money. And I can’t get that through to people. It’s not the money. I want recognition.
“I want my son to have his name back. His name is Colin John Smith. And that’s what I want people to remember.”
Sky News will have full coverage of the infected blood report on TV, online and on the Sky News app on Monday.
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