Barclays HQ raided by bailiffs over debt row

The Barclays headquarters was stormed by three bailiffs Thursday after a customer sued over ...

11:48 28 August 2012

The Barclays headquarters was stormed by three bailiffs Thursday after a customer sued over a £95,000 debt row. The officials raided the 32-storey building to claim the cash and warned that if unable to, they will seize PCs and other valuables from the office. Included in the items they considered taking is a £1 million art collection. The bailiffs had already called a van to the office in Canary Wharf. 

 

The Barclays ultimately caved in to the demand from High Court Collections and settled the £95,000 debt by bank transfer. 

 

According to a source, the bailiffs especially ‘worried the bank’ by threatening to take the PCs as well as the art collection. When these items will be auctioned off to recover the debt owed to the customer, they will sell for far less, so the bailiffs were discussing taking more than £1 million of stuff to fully cover the debt. 

 

The raid came after a court ruled that Galavish Rahimi, 50, of Fulham, West London, was mis-sold loan insurance and thus had to be given back the cash. Despite the successful raid, the bank disputed the court’s decision and has issued a court order to freeze the money. 

 

Barclays representatives said that the bank is now ‘taking steps to get the funds back’.

 

Galavish, on the other hand, said: “It’ll be heard again and they have costly lawyers.”