Statements of Truth

This campaign will provide a vital method of gathering evidence of possible signature forgeries by UK banks in court documents.

Anthony Stansfeld, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley Police who was influential in securing the successful criminal prosecutions of the perpetrators of HBOS Reading fraud, has also announced his support for the campaign.

Signatures on the Statements of Truth on court documents are a foundational aspect of the UK justice system and lawyers have been struck off the Roll of Solicitors for forging them. These processes of law cannot, and should not, be subservient to process that ‘speed-up’ the repossession of property by financial institutions.

The industrial-scale forgery of signatures on banks’ court documents against customers has been exposed in national scandals in other countries. In the US, an investigation by all 50 State Attorney Generals resulted in penalty payments by US banks of $25bn and a review of 4 million court cases against customers. The US Department of Justice described the penalty payments by banks as “the largest consumer protection settlement in United States history”.

In Australia, the Royal Commission documented evidence of signature forgery at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ Bank, Bendigo Bank and Commonwealth Financial Planning. It was also revealed that the falsification of signatures was a common practice at the National Australia Bank.

What evidence is required?

The campaign in encouraging personal and business customers who have received a bank court document from any UK bank or finance company to send a photo or photocopy of the bank signature to the campaign. They also encourage customers to send in examples of where they feel their signatures have been digitally lifted.

Bank court documents include claims forms, particulars of claims, witness statements, checklists, certificates of service and other legal forms. These bank court documents all have a signature section at the end which features a statement such as “I believe the facts stated in this document are true”, followed by the signature of the person signing on behalf of the bank, the date of signing and the printed name of the bank person.

Please note that we welcome your evidence even if you do not suspect a signature to be forged. The signatures will then be compared with other evidence.

How can you submit your evidence?

You can email your evidence directly to the APPG by emailing ben.bracciano@parliament.uk 

Alternatively, you can send a direct message to the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign via their twitter @BankSigForgeCam or Facebook page @BankSignatureForgeryCampaign

If you would like send your evidence by post, please send it to: The Bank Signature Forgery Campaign, c/o Kevin Hollinrake MP, The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

The Bank Signature Forgery Campaign also encourages the public to raise their evidence with their own Member of Parliament.

What will happen to your evidence?

The bank signatures signed in the name of the same bank person will be grouped together and compared for evidence of possible signature forgery and to determine whether there is evidence of industrial-scale forgery.

The goal of the campaign is for the evidence to be reviewed in an inquiry by the Treasury Select Committee and for the evidence to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency.