Khandu Chauhan from Leicester got back £1,650 from Halifax

At the start of 2000 Mr & Mrs Chauhan spoke with a financial adviser from Halifax to discuss ways of saving for the future. They were advised to invest a lump sum of £2,700 into ISAs and to add to this on a monthly basis.

They kept saving for a number of years and eventually moved their investment in 2011. Over this time they had paid in a total of £23,500 each and got back £30,500 each thereby making a small profit.

Mr Chauhan heard our radio advert and contacted Goodwin Barrett to see if we could help. He wasn’t sure if we were able to as they had made a gain on the investments. We looked at the advice Mr & Mrs Chauhan were given and analysed where they had been told to invest and found their money went into a ‘medium’ risk fund. It was clear to us that as first time investors this was too much risk for them to take.

We sent our claim to Halifax stating that the couple should not have been advised to take this much risk.

Halifax investigated the advice they had given to the couple over 20 years previously and agreed that it was not suitable for them at that time. We asked Halifax to calculate the position they would have been in if they had been given the correct advice and to add interest to that amount. As a result of our work Halifax paid Mr & Mrs Chauhan £1,651.