Stephen Feldon from Darlington got back £5,150 from HSBC

In 2006 Stephen was forced to retire from the Police after he was injured in the line of duty. He received a lump sum from his pension and was then approached by his bank to discuss the options he had for his money.

Stephen was advised to invest a total of £23,000 into an ISA and a Unit Trust for a term of 5 years or more as this could potentially provide tax free growth over time. His money was placed in various funds such as Invesco UK Growth Fund, HSBC Global Asset Management and the Fidelity American Fund. These funds invested in shares around the World.

Stephen needed to access his funds unexpectedly a couple of years later and received the amount of £21,732 losing almost £1,300.

Stephen saw our ad on the internet and contacted us asking if we could assist him. We reviewed the advice he was given and identified that, taking his personal circumstances into account at the time, he shouldn’t have taken risk with his money and invested at all in 2006. In addition the funds recommended were too high in risk for someone investing for the first time.

We sent our claim to HSBC explaining why Stephen was advised wrongly. After investigating the case HSBC agreed with our findings and paid him £5,182 to compensate for the unsuitable advice he had received. This amount covered the position he would have been in if he had kept his money on deposit.