Quick-thinking taxi driver prevents woman losing her life savings

A quick-thinking taxi driver has thwarted a financial fraud by alerting the bank of the intended victim. When the 87-year-old female victim told the driver that she needed to withdraw all her money from her bank account he became suspicious. The taxi had been booked via phone call by someone with a foreign accent. They asked for a company to pick up “his mother” and take her to the Nat West Bank in Clevedon from her home in Nailsea. During the journey the woman said that she had been told there was something funny going on with her account and that she had been requested to withdraw all her money from her account, which is why she was going to the bank. But Donald Wilby, a driver for Nailsea and Backwell Taxis became suspicious and when he arrived at the bank he alerted bank staff who then froze the woman’s account and called the police. Det Sgt Marc Milliner of the Avon and Somerset Police’s Complex Crime Unit said: “Mr Wilby, the taxi driver did exactly what we would have wanted and raised his concerns with the bank and ourselves. “His quick-thinking action has potentially saved the victim from being duped out of her life savings. “We hope other taxi drivers and those providing a courier collection service will take this on board and alert us if they are asked to take elderly and vulnerable people to withdraw cash from their banks or are asked to collect packages from people on behalf of police officers or bank officials,” said DS Milliner.