I am M.D. of a reputable limited company which has been trading for nearly 20 years with a 7 figure turnover and a 6 figure balance.

My son is a shareholder and wants to start his own gardening business.

He had the opportunity to buy into a business and so my business (which has banked with the BOS for 14 years) declared a dividend giving him £5000.

The money was transferred into his Halifax account and was frozen.

When he asked why he was told to go into the branch with id.

When he did he was told he would need a letter from my business to confirm the transfer.

When WE went in today with a letter we were told by David and Lyndsay in the Belfast office that they thought my business was a "mule"

and that the funds would not be released.

I had never heard this term before and googled it when I got home.

When I saw what it was I was furious.

This is not true.

I asked for proof of this allegation and was told that it was not up to them to prove my business is a mule but up to me to prove that it is not.

I am not happy.

All they have to do to realise that everything is okay is look into our account which they refused to do.

David told me that I must provide bank statements and id to release the funds.

Trust is now broken and if this can happen with £5k how can I be sure it will not happen again?

Obviously I am going to move away from the HBOS group as soon as I can apply for another account (tomorrow).

Getting the money back will be easy but it angers me that they can hurt innocent people and get away with it with no consequences. This could have hurt if it had have been an important supplier or if it had have been our last money. I would like to make a point so they are not so arrogant to others in the future.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the article but different gravy Andy. Our transfer was done by electronic transfer and not cheque and not even a transfer from a different group, but the same banking group.

This would have been so easy to verify but they were not interested. They told me that I must provide bank statements id and a share certificate.

Appreciate that markee ...just provide the link so posters will understand what exactly a " Mule " account is:wink:

Sorry:oops: