Bank Relents On Liverpool Homeless Man’s Frozen Account

A former Big Issue North vendor was forced to have his wages paid into a friend’s bank account after his was frozen due to suspected money laundering.

Gheorghe Ardeleanu, who sold the magazine in Liverpool city centre before finding work as a handyman, spent two months trying to persuade HSBC to unlock his account – opened under a scheme for homeless people, reports Big Issue North. Instead, the bank closed the account, telling him he could not use its services again. When Big Issue North contacted HSBC to ask why, the firm relented, unblocking Ardeleanu’s account and giving him compensation.

The former vendor’s ordeal began when he lost his accommodation and moved to a shelter run by the Whitechapel Centre. When staff realised he was carrying around £500 in cash – which he had saved doing agency work – they suggested opening a bank account. HSBC’s No Fixed Abode scheme allows homeless people to open a basic account even if they lack the ID documents banks normally require, by using the address of the agency supporting them. But Ardeleanu ran into problems and quickly found himself unable to withdraw anything more than small amounts of cash.

Lindsay Rimmer, senior coordinator of the Liverpool office of Big Issue North, said: “The last couple of months should be a real success story for Gheorghe because he’s found a stable job, but it’s been tainted by this. He’s a real grafter and is used to paying bills so him having some money isn’t that unusual. But when he went in to withdraw some money he was told the account was frozen. This went on for two months. He was going backwards and forwards trying to sort it out, and I wrote letters and even went to the branch with him to try to solve the problem. It was really stressful for him and seems very unfair to me.”

Lyndsay added: “Those in contact with homeless services are not all in the midst of a drug addiction. To be continually asked where the money is coming from, as if it’s illegitimate for him to have any, didn’t sit well with me.”

While this was going on, Ardeleanu found a place in the Cotton Street Project – accommodation for homeless people – and a full-time job. After two months he was given his money back and told he could no longer bank with HSBC, and ended up having his wages paid into a friend’s bank account. Because his identity documents were stolen last year he could not open a bank account elsewhere. After Big Issue North approached HSBC for a comment, however, the bank reinstated his account – also crediting it with £300 to compensate him for the inconvenience.

Ardeleanu said: “I’m so happy they have reactivated my account. I had to make a lot of visits to the bank and Lindsay also came with me to the branch twice. I should have been working – I’d just got a new job and didn’t want to be seen as unreliable. But I was really worried about this and didn’t have a bank card or access to my money, which was inconvenient. It also prevented me from returning to Romania to replace my ID documents.”

HSBC says the problem arose when Ardeleanu’s no fixed abode status was not passed onto the fraud team, which checks accounts for unusual activity.

“At HSBC UK we’re committed to offering support to those who would otherwise be excluded from banking services,” said a spokeswoman. Following an investigation, we found an oversight had led to the account closure process being started for Mr Ardeleanu. We have now halted this process and Mr Ardeleanu can continue to use his bank account as normal. We have compensated him for the inconvenience and have put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

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