ANGRY customers were told two days before Christmas that they would not be able to access their savings.
Account holders at Nationwide building society, West Drayton, were told at 3pm yesterday (Tuesday), during peak shopping hours in the run up to the festive season that money was not available.
A woman who works as a registered carer for a 97-year-old man said: "I tried to take him down to the Nationwide on Monday to draw out £500 he wanted but we were turned away.
"They said come back the next day, which we did, but again we were told there was no withdrawals available, only paying in.
"There was a long line of angry customers and this really officious woman from Nationwide shouting at us all and saying she did not have to explain anything to anybody.
"I thought it was disgusting, they are depriving a 97-year-old man of his life savings. How can they be allowed to do that with no reason?"
Nationwide said they purely had run out of money, and were restricting withdrawals, although customers could still access their funds through cash machines, but warned anybody wishing to withdraw large amounts of cash to contact them in advance.
Nationwide said: "We advise customers that do need to withdraw a substantial amount of cash to contact their local branch in advance to arrange this.
"We had a temporary period yesterday (Tuesday) when we had to restrict the amount of cash paid out over branch counters in our West Drayton branch. This problem was resolved within a few hours and the branch was quickly back to normal operations."
