A BATTLE of Britain Memorial charity claims it has become the latest victim of the debanking saga.
Barclays closed the account it had for more than 36 years and the charity says it has lost out on £8,000 in donations.
Battle of Britain trustees revealed to GBNews how they were told it was being exited because it was the “wrong entity” after an administrative change in 2016.
Group Captain Patrick Tootal, the Battle of Britain Memorial’s Honorary Secretary, told GB News:
“The battle has been going on for two years. They wrote me a letter and said you're not the right entity; you've got to go from one account to another account.
“I said, I don't understand this entity, which is according to section 27 of the Money Laundering Act. I don't think we do a lot of money laundering in the Battle of Britain.
“But what annoyed me is you can go on to the Charity Commission website and there we are still there.
“We kept the old charity number going because we were probably still receiving some legacies. If it appeared in wills it was ‘The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust.’
“I got halfway through it and last year they said, don't worry about it, we can give you the same account number, same sort code and you won't have to tell your people to stop standing orders or change them.
“We wrote to all these people and said we understood Barclays were fixing it and then finally, I get something at the end of October saying ‘we've closed your account.’
"It’s bureaucratic nonsense. We had all this money sitting in our account that the charity needs for the upkeep of the site.
“I've been mailing the 285 ‘Friends of the Few’ with their annual magazine, giving them a new standing order for the new bank account, and getting it on the way.
“It ended up costing us £200 and it’s likely we won’t get the 285 Friends of the Few back.
“It’s wasting my time when I've got to do other things to keep the trust up and running.”
“For the trouble, they offered us £100 compensation. It’s laughable.”
Barclays told GB News: “Barclays serves many charities across the UK and we recognise the contribution they make to society. It’s important we fully understand our customers’ activity to ensure we can fully support them and meet our regulatory obligations and our ongoing responsibility to help prevent financial crime. As we have not had permission from the business owner concerned, we are not able to comment on this account as it would breach data protection.”
