Pensioner takes on bank over missing cash

A pensioner from Dunmore has vowed to continue to fight to reclaim money lodged to a dormant Ulster Bank account 40 years ago – which could now be worth more than €11,000.

The 89-year-old has already picketed the Tuam branch of Ulster Bank on two occasions.

When looking through a suitcase full of her late husband’s old documents recently, Teresa Scahill discovered a document showing a £1,000 lodgement was made to the account at Ulster Bank in Tuam 40 years ago.

However, the bank has refused to allow her withdraw the money . . . because it has no record that the account ever existed.

After four decades, the £1,000 lodgement would be worth in the region of €6,400. Assuming a very basic deposit interest rate of 1.5%, the balance of the account would be in the region of €11,600 today (excluding DIRT tax).

Mrs Scahill said the money has been lodged by her late husband in the 1970s, and had disappeared without trace.

“I’ve had numerous discussions with the bank and the dormant accounts department, but they failed to find a solution. I came across an old document in a suitcase, and there was no problem in the beginning when I went in.

“They wanted a marriage certificate and I brought it in within a week. I wrote to dormant accounts and they say they have no trace of it being transferred there.

Now I have a dozen letters in front of me to the complaints department in Dublin and the complaints department in Northern Ireland.

“They acknowledged it in the beginning, but now I’m not getting anywhere. £1,000 back then would have bought a house in Tuam or a house in Galway.

“I want to know where my money is. To say they cannot trace it is not an answer.

“I stood outside the bank twice with a placard, asking for my money. They wanted to bring me out a chair and bring me a cup of tea, but then when I stood out of a shower of rain in the doorway, I was asked to move,” she said.

“I was a nurse in England for 18 months of the war (World War II) and my husband worked there for five years of the war laying telephone cables.

“There’s no way in the world of God above I’m going to give in. The family say ‘have a bit of sense’, but I have nothing else to do. It’s rightfully mine, that money was earned by blood and sweat,” she said.

Mrs Scahill is well-known in Dunmore having run a business there for more than 50 years.

Dormant account legislation was introduced by the Government in 2001 which ordered that any accounts which had not been active for 15 years or more would have their balances transferred to the National Treasury Management Agency for distribution into a charity fund.

However, the legislation states that dormant account funds with the NTMA can be called back by their rightful owner.

A spokesperson for Ulster Bank said they cannot comment on individual cases. However, it is understood the bank is urgently looking into the matter.

Four years ago, Mrs Scahill lost a civil action against Bank of Ireland in Dunmore, where she alleged that money totalling €650 had been withdrawn from her account without her consent.

The claim was dismissed after the Judge said three samples of Mrs Scahill’s signature were very similar to those on two withdrawal slips.