Bonk, Bank ... Bloody Idiot

Friday, 6 December 2002

A visit to my parents turned up this item in the December 3 edition of the International Express (the international print edition of Britain's Daily Express).

A cheating husband is to sue the Halifax bank that exposed his nine-year affair by sending a statement to his marital home - for an account he held with his lover.

Car repairer Barry Stevens, who was thrown out by his wife Janet after she found the incriminating statement on her doormat is blaming the Halifax for wrecking his marriage.

"I'm not the only man in the world who has played around," Barry, 50, said "But you can get caught by yourself - you don't need any extra help from the Halifax. Their cock-up has really landed me in it."

He said his wife Janet, 48, was seeking a divorce and he now expects to lose half of his 300,000 pound bungalow in Whitstable, Kent. He's now demanding 20,000 pounds compensation from the Halifax and is threatening to sue if they don't pay.

The mechanic has enjoyed an on-off relationship with mistress Gwen Weedon, 39, since 1993, becoming so close that they set up a joint savings account together.

Mrs Stevens first found out about their affair five years ago but forgave him. But his continuing deception unravelled when he visited his Halifax branch for advice on remortgaging the family bungalow and filled in a form giving his home address.

In a clerical error, that address replaced Gwen's on their joint account and a statement posted three weeks later was picked up by Janet.

I don't think that this requires any additional comment from me - in any case I'm too busy catching up on Ken Parish's prescribed reading on the ASIO Act (with the occasional detour into the history of the War Precautions 1914-1916 and other totally irrelevant past events).