We face losing our home and £120,000 life savings after being caught up in building society scandal - we were lied to and want answers

A retired couple facing losing their home and £120,000 in life savings after falling victim to a building society scandal have said they were lied to and are demanding answers.

Pensioners John and Carol Bell are amongst the 2,300 victims who could collectively lose £138 million after the Philips Trust Cooperation (PTC) was plunged into administration in April 2022.

The grandparents had invested £120,000 of their own cash and their detached family home into a trust after they met with a Newcastle Building Society brand in 2012. 

The building society had formed an agreement with the Will Writing Company that helped with requests from customers but the firm went bust in 2018, with its assets being acquired by PTC.

The family were amongst thousands who lost everything when PTC also went bankrupt themselves just four years later. 

Mr Bell, 77, and Mrs Bell, 76, moved £120,000 of their savings and their three-bed detached home in Brandon, Durham, then worth £170,000, into the trust at a cost of about £3,700 before the turmoil.

Mr Bell, a former engineer said: 'If we put the house into this family trust, the WWC advisor said it would protect it if we had to go into care and it would be better for us to put our investments into this trust too.

'We thought it was the right decision. We trusted the advisor and the people in the building society.

'We were lied to. Nobody told us these companies were unregulated. If we had known all of this, we would never have touched them. We've got an awful lot of regret.

'It makes me gutted thinking about it. We trusted everyone, they were supposed to be the experts. We never thought this could even happen – we thought it was all safeguarded.'

The couple do not believe they will get 'anything back' from their huge investment which they believe would be worth around £150,000 now. 

They are currently in the process of getting the house back in their names which will take a few more months and cost £4,000. 

'Everything. It was there for us, our three children and four grandchildren,' Mr Bell added.

Retired couple Louise and Eric Cowan, 71 and 73, from Newcastle, similarly put their house into trust after a meeting set up with a WWC advisor at the Gosforth branch of the Building Society in 2016.

The pair say they paid £4,000 to set up the trust, believing they and their daughter living in Spain would be the trustees - only to later discover their names had been taken off the deeds of their home altogether.

Mrs Cowan feared her family would lose their three-bed detached of 40 years as it could have been sold beneath their feet without their consent.

The former support worker said: 'They had removed our names in 2016 so they had complete control of our house.

'It's been an expensive process. The lawyer did the legal work to get our names registered back on the deeds – that cost about £1,500. Then we had to pay the administrators about £2,500.

'We're nearly £10,000 out of pocket just to keep our own house. I thought we were going to lose the house - I didn't sleep for weeks. We trusted Newcastle Building Society. We thought if they were sending this person out we could trust them.

'In hindsight what started as a conversation about wills turned to him selling us a trust in about two minutes, he made us believe it was the best thing for us.

'Most of the victims are over 60. I think we were targeted – they hooked people in by mentioning wills and the building society made money out of us.'

Instead of making bespoke investments for individual trust holders, PTC piled a total £44m into four private companies - £15.7m of that was due to be received by administrators Kroll by February 23, but only £1.17m had been received.

Kroll said because of 'weak corporate governance and inadequate record keeping' by PTC it had no way of saying where money from each trust had been invested.

Newcastle Building Society claims it never had a relationship with, nor at any point referred customers to the Philips Trust Corporation.

A spokesperson said they were 'very concerned by, and sympathetic to, the difficult situation faced by those affected.'

The Newcastle Building Society disputes not telling customers WWC was unregulated, saying literature at the time said the services were 'not regulated by the FCA.'

Claire Springle, of Springle & Co Solicitors in North Tyneside, has helped dozens of trust holders and questioned how the building societies can claim no responsibility.

She said: 'I have a lot of clients who are in a massive mess and the reason they are in this massive mess is because they set foot inside the building societies.

'If they had put their money with another high street bank, or wherever else, they wouldn't be in the position they are in today. 

'Surely the building societies must take some fraction of responsibility. They may be able to wriggle out on legal technicalities but from a moral point of view they must.

'These people aren't stupid, they would never buy anything door to door. The only reason they thought it was a good idea was because it ultimately had the backing of the building society.

'All they have done is go into the branch and they got collared. They went in just for normal day-to-day banking and came out in this mess. 

'I have been in tears in the office after conversations I've had with clients. They can't sleep. They can't eat because they are so worried about what's going to happen.'

A Newcastle Building Society spokesperson added: 'We are currently engaging with the administrators, Kroll, to better understand the impact on those affected and their next steps.

'Once this information is available, we will be in a position to consider if we may be able to provide some support to affected customers on a voluntary basis.

'Given the complexity of the situation and early stage of proceedings we are unable to pass further comment at this stage.'

Kroll managing director Geoff Bouchier said: 'While due to the ongoing complexity of the case it is not possible to put an exact timeline on when it will conclude, we recognise the significant impact this situation has caused, and we sympathise with those affected.'