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Ferrero, famous for its chocolates Ferrero Rocher, Nutella and Tic-tacs, has been cleared of fraudulent allegations regarding their supply of hazelnuts.

The case came about because two banks lent the equivalent of £24.5 million, to a Turkish firm, Baskan Gida, which was the world’s biggest hazelnut supplier at the time.

The firm used the money to buy hazelnuts, but then transferred the nuts to a second company so that the banks could not get their money back. The banks then claimed that they believed Ferrero to be involved in the offence.

However, a judge disagrees with the allegations against Ferrero, clearing the company. He also handed down a 272 page long document that describes the trial as “very long and no doubt enormously expensive.”

Long And Expensive Battle

The judges’ rulings say that another defendant, Shabbir Abidali was involved instead. Therefore there will be another hearing at the end of the month in order to decide the price Mr Abidali will pay.

The judge has already said he will not be liable to pay the full £24.5 million, but the hearing will decide who will have to pay the costs of the case.

The case itself has been running for a total of seven years, appearing in court a total of 84 days since October last year. Therefore the costs are expected to be higher than the initial amount of money the banks initially lost out on.

A parallel trial being undergone in Italy recently included an estimate of 11 million euros for the cost of Ferrero’s legal representation alone.

‘Dishonest’

Mr Abidali and the banks involved in the case will have to decide whether they want to appeal against the judgement, after the judge decided that three Ferrero witnesses deliberately lied in court.

The judge decided that the three witnesses lied about Ferrero’s relationship with Baskan Gida in order to protect their company’s reputation, but he also decided that this did not mean that they had anything to do with trying to defraud the banks.

The company is defending its employees: “Ferrero remains of the view that all of its personnel acted properly and with integrity throughout,” said the company’s solicitor Andrew Howell.

The judge also added that Mr Abidali was dishonest after creating backdated documents that were designed to give false and misleading information.

What Do You Think?

Who should be made to pay the price for the legal action incurred and the original crime? Was the right judgment reached? Should Ferrero’s employees that lied in court face charges or should the whole thing just be put to bed? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

Insurers are trying to force accident victims to settle their claims just hours after the accident occurred according to shocking research by road safety charity, Brake.

The group is concerned that people involved in accidents are being pushed into taking pay-outs before getting medical or legal advice. Therefore, solicitors are calling for tighter rules on how companies treat third parties involved in accidents.

The insurance industry claims that victims should receive their compensation as quickly as possible without resorting to lengthy court proceedings.

If a driver is involved in an accident, which was not their fault, they are expected to deal with the other person’s insurer, but Brake says it is concerned that insurance companies are pushing crash victims to settle too quickly.

One victim of such behaviour is Ms Harrison who suffered severe facial injuries when another car crashed head-on with hers last March. She received phone calls from an agent of the other drivers insurance company the day after she got out of hospital.

She explains: “From the day I got home, the insurance company phoned me and were pressuring me not to take it any further – not to seek legal advice. I was really shocked.

“He was really forceful, like a bully – really trying to push me to close a deal.”

Deception

Once she instructed lawyers, Ms Harrison explains how the insurance company was able to get hold of her medical records: “They poised as someone working for my solicitor in order to obtain my medical records. I had no idea insurance companies would behave in that way.”

Jane Horton – spokesperson at Brake says that insurers should not make this kind of direct and unsolicited contact.

She says: “It’s as if having been made a victim once… you’re then being made a victim twice by then being approached when you’re not really equipped to deal with it.”

A former claims handler from the same company that contacted Ms Harrison said: “My sole job was to capture those clients – to stop them getting independent legal advice, ant try to settle direct in their living room.”

But his previous employer denies this claiming it has a pro-active approach that is based on paying fair compensation quickly so that third parties appreciate their service.

Respecting Claimant’s Rights

The company added that it “completely respects a claimant’s right to appoint a solicitor.” They are also investigating how their company got hold of Ms Harrisons medical reports.

However, personal injury lawyers say that this kind of behaviour is widespread across the industry.

The Association of British Insurers insists that its members only contact the injured third party drivers to help them get their compensation more quickly.

Assistant Director of ABI, Justin Jacobs says: “It is the right thing for insurers to be doing, rather than requiring claimants to drag them through the courts.”

However, the Motor Accident Solicitors’ Society and Brake are calling for tighter restrictions and regulations to be put into place.

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Thousands of spouses who have lost their husbands, wives or civil partners may be missing out on thousands of pounds worth of benefits.

The benefits are made to people of working age who claim within a strict time limit, but some coroners are believed to not be giving bereaved partners the information they need to make the claim

There are around 30,000 deaths each year caused suddenly or unexpectedly that are therefore referred to the local coroner, whose job is to issue an interim death certificate and issue a government booklet about the bereavement benefits on offer and how to claim.

One such example of this is given by a man who lost his wife in a road accident. He explained: “I didn’t receive anything after the inquest 10 months after her death then I was told to go to the Registrar and was given a booklet.

“Widowed Parent’s Allowance can only be backdated by three months so I missed six months of that. I lost about £2,300.

“There is also a Bereavement Payment of £2,000 which has to be claimed within 12 months. I did get that but if the inquest had lasted any longer I wouldn’t have been able to claim that either.”

The chief executive for Child Poverty Action Group, Kate Green says: “We need a joined-up way to make sure information is given to individuals and families.

“The government needs to be much more proactive to make sure people understand and get their rights.”

What Are You Entitled To?

No bereavement benefits are means tested, and are paid out on the National Insurance contributions of the person who has died.

Payments can be claimed by the spouse or civil partner of the person who has died if the deceased is not entitled to retirement pension or the widow or widower is under the pension age.

The £2,000 payment is tax free and needs to be made within 12 months of death.

Bereavement Allowance is available to widows between the age of 45 and pension age.

The other benefit is taxable at £95.25 per week if the widow is 55, and less if the widow is younger, and is paid for 52 weeks.

Widowed Parent’s Allowance is available for people under pension age who have children under 19. It is a minimum of £95.25 a week and is taxable.

What Do You think?

Were you aware of these benefits? Could your family have benefited from these in the past but you knew nothing about them? Does more need to be done to make the public more aware of what they are entitled to? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

Recent election results have showed the Labour has suffered its worst post-war defeat after being beaten to third place by the UKIP.

In the European elections, Labour won just 15.3% of the seats. The Tories on the other hand, won with 28.6%. They also beat Labour in Wales but failed to increase their total share significantly.

The BNP gained two seats in Yorkshire and in Humberside in the North West of England – the first time an anti-immigration party has won seats at a national election.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are viewing this negatively. Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: “The BNP is like the ultimate protest vote. It is how to deliver the establishment a two-fingered salute. I think largely it is a comment on Westminster politics.”

Leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin said he was “absolutely delighted” and that there will be “huge changes” in British politics.

Dismal

The results from Northern Ireland are still unknown.

Harriet Harman, deputy leader for Labour said the following about the results: “It was a dismal result. We have to understand the concerns that people are expressing and address them. What we won’t be doing is wringing our hands, being disunited.”

However, David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives is “delighted” with the results. He says: “The Conservative party were the clear winners in these elections. We topped the poll, we increased our share of the vote, increased our number of MEPs, we won in almost every part of the country and had some staggering results like topping the poll in Wales.”

He added that the results showed “an enormous gap opening up between Labour and Conservative” as the Tories got “almost twice as many votes as Labour.”

Extreme Parties Benefit

Other UK-wide Westminster parties results were very similar, leaving space for smaller, more extreme parties to benefit.

UKIP campaigns for Britain to withdraw from the EU and gained 17.4% of the vote, increasing its number of MEPs to 13 – beating Labour into third place.

The UKIP leader Nigel Farage sees this as a huge achievement which sends a clear message to Gordon Brown. “He has been beaten by a party that he mocked and derided as being on the fringes so if we have beaten him, he has got to go.”

In two southern regions of the country, the Labour party even lost out on fifth place to the Green party.

Nationally, the Green party increased their share of the vote by 8.7%, but blame the electoral system for not gaining more than its current two MEPs, saying: “In the South East we have increased our vote by 50% and we are disappointed it has not translated into a second seat.”

The Liberal Democrats also had a better election than in 2004. Leader Nick Clegg said: “On the European vote we held our own, we actually added an MEP… I think given the very volatile nature of the elections it was a solid result.”

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For the third consecutive month the Bank of England has chosen not to change interest rates.

For the first time, it also didn’t announce new measures to stimulate the economy. Last month it announced it would inject an extra £50 billion into the economy to aid quantitative easing.

Policymakers at the Bank are trying to work out how the economy is really doing despite the small signs of recovery that are currently present, after a trusted survey into the service sector released earlier this week suggests that recovery may in fact begin sooner than expected.

May also saw a rise in house prices by 2.6%- the fastest rate of growth since 2002 according to a survey by Halifax.

Future Still Uncertain

But the Bank of England’s latest Inflation Report shows that the outlook for the economy is still uncertain.

However, financial markets showed little reaction to the decision not to make any changes, as the value of the pound begins to edge slightly higher on the FTSE 100 index has changed little.

The European Central Bank also left its interest rates unchanged at 1%. It also introduces no new quantitative easing measures despite calls to increase the £125 billion it has already pledged to help the economy.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce said: “The positive mood in the financial markets should not lull anyone into a false sense of security.

More Can Be Done

“Tackling the recession must remain the priority, especially with unemployment rising and firms continuing to slash investment.”

The Treasury claims that the Banks £125 billion to aid quantitative easing by printing money to use to buy back government and corporate bonds and increase the amount of cash in the economy, could easily be increased to £150 billion.

Daiwa Securities European economist, Colin Ellis, said: “It’s still possible that the committee may decide to spend more – despite the good news this week, money and credit growth is not yet showing signs of improvement, which could undermine the strength of any recovery.”

Record low interest rates in the housing market over the past few months have eased mortgage affordability for many home buyers.

Not Over Yet

Research by Halifax shows that the proportion of disposable income spent on mortgage repayments by new borrowers dropped from a 48% high in the third quarter of 2007 to 31% in the first quarter of this year.

On the other hand, the sharp drop in interest rates has also led to savers being short changed on their saving accounts after the average interest rate on an instant access saving account in the UK fell to 0.16%, compared to 2.77% at the end of January last year.

Even though economists talk about the economy recovering, many economists expect interest rates to remain low for the rest of 2009 and most of 2010.

Roger Bootle of Deloitte commented: “I think that monetary policy will remain exceptionally loose for a prolonged period.”

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The value of the pound sterling is finally on the rise again after it is said to have hit a seven month high against the US dollar which has continued to fall out of favour with traders.

One pound sterling is now said to be worth 1.6664 dollars.

The pound is also looking stronger against the euro. One pound currently has the same value as 1.16 euros. On top of this, its value against the Japanese yen has also increased to 160.47.

The value of the pound finally rising again comes as news that the UK recession is easing comes, and consumers are beginning to feel more positive about spending money again.

A range of data that was released on Wednesday shows good indications that the recession could finally be fading and prospects therefore improving.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for all UK services rose to 51.7 in May, compared to 48.7 just a month before in April. This reading being above 50, indicates that the economy is finally beginning to expand again.

A ‘Global Liquidity Story’

Markit, the company that compiles the PMI indexes has revealed that its all-sector PMI reading – which combines the areas of construction, services and manufacturing, rose to 50.4 last month. This is the first time this figure has been above 50 since March of last year.

A separate Nationwide survey also showed that UK consumer confidence has also reached its highest level in the last six months as people are now more confident about their outlook on the economy.

Another survey conducted by the KPMG shows that the pace of contraction in employment also slowed down a little in May.

Ian Stannard of the BNP Paribas said: “Sterling has accelerated to the upside over the course of the last few days,” adding that it was not just the UK that has suffered but should be viewed as a: “global liquidity story, and as long as risk appetite continues to hold up, sterling will continue to benefit as a cyclical currency.”

What Do You Think?

Does this mark the end of the worst part of the recession? Is there a chance that it could fall again? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

A watchdog is accusing banking staff of giving out confusing and inconsistent information to customers about the clearing time of cheques.

The Banking Code Standards Board said that many staffs’ training appears to have been ineffective as they seemed to be confident about the information they were giving even though it was wrong.

The board also says that the results of their research are even worse than when they carried out a similar survey just last year.

A cheque is deemed as having completely cleared after six days, but the mystery shopper survey conducted showed that two-thirds of bank and building society staff did not know that a cheque could not bounce after this six day period.

Interest must be credited no more than two days after a cheque has been paid in and the money must be available to be drawn out after no more than four days according to rules set down in November 2007.

42% of banking staff seemed to be aware of the first rule mentioned above, and 50% were aware of the second according to the survey.

However, the board said that the combined results were “significantly worse” than the results from last year.

Chief executive of the board, Robert Skinner, said: “It is clearly disappointing that, despite the concerns raised in our last report, we have found customer facing staff, in the majority of cases, unable to provide clear and accurate information to customers on the cheque clearing cycle.

“Our review did not indicate that large numbers of customers are being financially disadvantaged as a result but the industry clearly has work to do in improving the knowledge of front line staff.”

The research was done at the beginning of the year. Ten banks and nine building societies were surveyed, with a total of 164 branches being visited personally, and 110 telephone calls being made

What Do You Think?

Whose fault is this lack of knowledge? Have you ever encountered similar problems in the past? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions on this. Leave your comments here.

April saw the third consecutive monthly rise in mortgage approval for home buyers in the UK according to the Bank of England.

Lenders apparently approved 43,201 new loans for home buyers, but the number of people changing their existing loans fell again.

The increase in approvals is a good indicator of short-term trends and suggests that sales may continue to rise.

Completed sales in March and April rose by 35% compared to the levels in February.

Philip Straw of Investec says: “Although it is an upward grind rather than a jump, at least it is a steady upward grind, and it’s consistent with a steady recovery in housing market activity.”

Challenging

Paul Broadhurst of the Building Societies Association (BSA) also commented that: “the rate of decline in activity in the housing market may have started to slow, but overall the lending environment remains very challenging.”

Figures produced by Moneyfacts also indicate that lenders are still rationing funds for new borrowers.

1,623 mortgage deals are available at the moment, two-thirds of which still require a deposit of 25% or more, with a quarter of all deals needing a down-payment of at least 40%.

Although, with the wholesale financial market weakening, competitors have been fighting hard to attract ordinary savers funding mortgage lending.

But the BSA said the building societies had experienced a net outflow of £811 million of savers money in April, suggesting this may be because people preferred to pay off their debts over saving.

Demanding Competition

It also says that members were still suffering unfair competition from state-backed institutions like Northern Rock and National Savings & Investments: “Those banks that are supported by the state are able to compete unfairly for deposits, and steps need to be taken to ensure that the government backing for some institutions does not distort competition for savings.”

Another reason for reluctance may be the very low rates on saving accounts, as the Bank of England figures show that returns on savings are still extremely low.

The average rate from instant access accounts in the UK is at 0.16% at the end of April from 2.43% a year earlier. Typical interest rates for cash Individual Savings Account (ISA) at the end of April was 0.42%, again lower than the 0.63% average just a month earlier, and much lower than the 4.81% a year ago.

Property sales have begun to increase from the winter, but there is conflicting evidence as to whether or not house prices are also starting to revive.

A monthly survey conducted by Nationwide shows that UK house prices rose in the past two to three months, making them just 11% lower than a year ago. This shows a considerable slowing down compared to previous reports on the annual rate of decline.

What Do You Think?

We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

It has been a year since the launch of same day bank transfers, but it has been suggested that this is not actually faster after nearly half of eligible payments were found to take three days or more to be processed.

Since May 2008 around £45 billion has been found not to have gone the Faster Payment System as many banks and large building societies have made little progress with the faster clearing service.

According to the group running the service, the system is working, but customers leaving their banks in frustration are doing the “right thing”.

However, it has been revealed by the BBC that nearly half of payments eligible for same day transfer are not making it through the system and are taking three or more days to clear.

Upper Limits Causing Trouble

Seven of the thirteen founding members of the scheme are still in fact only offering a partial service or no service at all, including banks such as Abbey, Lloyds and Nationwide.

Though Abbey claims it has been focused on the merger of its technology with its new parent country and is hoping to operate a 35% capacity by June.

Lloyds also did initially offer an online same day transfer, but has withdrawn it, claiming it will be running again after December 2009.

One of the main reasons for the system not working to full capacity is that many banks have imposed an upper limit on the value that can be transferred by the system.

For example, Nationwide only offers next day payments for amounts of £10 or less which is possibly why only 1% of its transfers are being processed this way. Alliance and Leicester, Lloyds and Halifax also have a very low threshold compared to the industrial limit of £10,000.

Frustrated

Less progress has been made on sending other types of payments through the system. For example, the majority of the founding thirteen members don’t allow customers to settle credit card bills next day, including HSBC and HBOS.

Also standing orders which are typically set up to donate to charity, are also not permitted as Faster Payments by nearly half of the founding members.

APACS is the industrial body that represents the banks involved in the payments. Their spokesperson Sandra Quinn said: “Our main target in the first year was to make sure that it worked. It’s robust. It works everyday.

“But we are getting frustrated… those customers who have walked away, actually they’ve done the right thing.”

However, some banks do provide a full service, including RBS, Natwest and Barclays.

What Do You Think?

We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.