Noel Edmonds has set up an “honesty countdown” clock website to increase pressure on Lloyds Banking Group, as the TV star seeks £73m in compensation for fraud committed by former HBOS Reading staff.
The website tracks the amount of time left for compensation offers to be made to himself and other victims of the fraud based on the bank’s timeline. Lloyds has insisted it will make payments by the end of June from a £100m pot it has set aside to compensate 64 victims and has appointed Professor Russel Griggs, a banking expert, to review their cases.
Edmonds – a quiz show host and former Radio 1 DJ and children’s TV presenter – has accused Lloyds of “foot dragging” over compensation payments. He made a personal intervention earlier this month, writing to Lord Blackwell criticising the chairman of Lloyds for the lack of urgency displayed to “right the grievous wrongs for which it is responsible”. He told the Lloyds chairman that he had decided to speak out on behalf of other victims because his celebrity status allowed “my voice [to be] heard more loudly than the other fraud victims who do not enjoy my profile”.
Edmonds is seeking £73m in compensation for what he claims is the destruction of his Unique business empire together with public humiliation and damage to his reputation. His law firm Keystone Law wrote to the bank’s chief executive, António Horta-Osório, demanding compensation earlier this month.
In his letter to Blackwell, Edmonds said his business was “brought crashing down” as a result. “Not only did this cost me a vast amount financially, but it caused me great public humiliation, frustration and distress,” he added.
The Deal or No Deal host said he was a client of former HBOS employee Mark Dobson, who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison along with five others after a jury heard they spent the proceeds of their £245m loans scam on superyachts and sex parties, while destroying businesses to which they had lent money.
The fraud took place in the run-up to Lloyds’ rescue of HBOS during the 2008 banking crisis.
Lloyds has confirmed that Edmond’s case has been included in the compensation review being overseen by Griggs.
“We remain on track to begin making the first compensation offers before the end of May and anticipate making compensation offers by the end of June to all customers who have confirmed their participation in the review,” the bank said earlier this month.
