RBS must pay if it destroyed lives to boost profits

This debacle has gone on long enough. RBS should be broken up and sold off to the highest bidder.

Finally, the little guy who for years has been systematically squeezed by RBS (Royal Bank of Shysters) until his business is destroyed has found his white knight.

Step forward Yorkshire entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson, defender of small businesses and a kick ass modern day superhero to all those who have been tortured at the hands of RBS and their dreaded Global Restructuring Group (GRG).

Sadly for many it’s already too late as everything they had has already been gobbled up.

For far too long those who have been put through this particular wringer of the bank have been unable to complain as they stumbled through a mountain of debt, cynical undervaluations, damaging interest charges and impossible-to-meet loan repayments.

Those who have lost everything have been driven to despair while some of those in RBS have been allowed to get away with their conniving schemes.

Not any more. Mr Tomlinson has made sure of that by handing over his damning dossier outlining alleged foul practices to Business Secretary Vince Cable and calling for “immediate action to stop this unscrupulous treatment of business”.

If found guilty the bank could end up in court charged with very serious counts of fraud.

Even better, because of his action an avalanche of complaints is now expected to flood in like a tsunami from many more people who were similarly wronged.

So Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence your report has come not a moment too soon.

RBS have said they are committed to an inquiry, but given their history of financial wrongdoing that includes everything from rigging interest rates to selling dodgy insurance, not forgetting Fred the Shred’s lavish spending sprees, they should already be committed . . . courtesy of Her Majesty!

One company reckons it cost them more than £250,000 just to move from their friendly local bank to GRG.

It’s laughable when you consider their principal function was to help firms restructure and get them out of debt, not put them further in it.

But the real snide practice claimed in Tomlinson’s report, one that if proved should have those responsible rounded up and put in the stocks, not the dock, was that GRG would deliberately undervalue a business’s assets in order that their own property company could then purchase them at a huge discount.

A very profitable venture, it seems, given that the property off-shoot, West Register, now sits on assets worth more than £3 billion.

Disgraceful!

Indeed I know of one individual who lost his personal savings as well as his business and home, another his property portfolio as well as his treasured restaurant.

Sadly I have also heard of people whose marriages have fallen apart and in some very tragic cases lost their will to live altogether.

This proves beyond a doubt that since the dark days of Fred the Shred, RBS and their subsidiaries have learnt nothing from their mistakes and therefore cannot be trusted with our money.

Even when it comes to lending they are an abject failure, with six out of 10 loan applications “screened out” before the submission stage and then only a third who make it through then successful.

If they don’t lend what’s the point in having them?

This debacle has gone on long enough. RBS should be broken up and sold off to the highest bidder.

We cannot allow them to get another chance to make a pig’s ear of the economy or be in a position to turn on those who became their financial fodder.

They are an embarrassment to banking, and indeed Scotland, and before they inflict any more damage the state should cash in their chips and be done with them.

The truly sickening fact is that because the taxpayers are the major stake holder, it will be them who bear the brunt of RBS’s defence costs, fines or financial penalties, not the individuals responsible.

You couldn’t make it up!