Long Sutton sweet shop owner is demanding answers after Natwest cancelled business account ahead of new shop opening in Wisbech
A sweet shop owner has demanded answers from NatWest bank after it closed his company’s bank account.
Nathaniel Woodward, who runs Woodward Confection in Long Sutton, said he was left shaking after receiving a text message “out of the blue” notifying him the shop’s bank account had been closed with immediate effect - just days after he had been given a Bounce Back Loan from the Government.
The message which came through late in the afternoon on Monday, October 12, gave no reason for the decision and it left Nathaniel and his partner Leah Huggins with a huge headache.
He said: “The Bounce Back Loan was paid out on the Friday, and was there to help us with our new business venture.
“We are planning to open our second shop in Union Street, Wisbech, on November 28. We will still be opening but we have had to put some of the fancier stuff we had planned on hold.
“We have had a lot of sleepless nights, because all our money was in that bank account and we have no access to it. We have had the hassle of opening a new bank account so we can continue to take card payments and orders via our website, and all because the NatWest has made this decision to close our account without warning, or even an explanation.
“We have to wait 60 days while they look into whether they will give us our money back and if they decide they won’t then it could take up to another 90 days to appeal to the ombudsman.”
Mr Woodward, who opened the Long Sutton shop earlier this year, said he has written to CEO of NatWest and has also asked MP Sir John Hayes to help.
He said: “We have worked so hard, we have ploughed all the money we have made from the Long Sutton shop back into the business and have planned the opening of our new shop very carefully.
“The decision by NatWest could not only have scuppered our expansion plans, but it could have put us out of business altogether, but we were determined that wasn’t going to happen and we have managed to pay everything that needed to be paid, but it has caused many sleepless nights.
A spokesperson for NatWest said: “We’ve been working tirelessly to deliver the Government schemes in a secure and robust way – successfully supporting 23 per cent of all lending across the three schemes. Unfortunately, not all applications are eligible, and we have a responsibility to ensure that the correct processes are followed. Investigations confirm the reason for closing this specific customer’s account is valid.”
