Jones took on the case when the man's 77-year-old widow contacted him, having discovered her husband's £150,000 had not been put into the cash account for which they asked.

'He was terminally ill, which [Barclays Financial Planning] was quite aware of, and he said he wanted a cash account.' said  Jones. The husband, aged 75, already had a cash account with Barclays bank but, according to Jones, was worried by the  banking crisis. Believing only £35,000 of his £250,000 account would be protected if the bank folded, he asked for a second  account.

'However, the adviser instead put him into the Barclays Defined Return Plan, administered by Woolwich, which he told [the  couple] was a cash account,' said Jones. The husband died 12 months later and when his wife tried to withdraw the money she  discovered there was no cash account.

'The Barclays adviser would not provide the wife with key facts about the plan so she contacted me. Then 12 months later we  were able to get the documents from the bank,' said Jones.

'We then put in a complaint to Barclays and the Financial Ombudsman Service, which ruled in favour of the client. 'The matter  was finally resolved in March and the money paid back in April, so I had been involved for 15 months.'

The Ombudsman ordered Barclays to pay back Jones' client the £150,000 original investment plus £7,118 interest. In a  statement Barclays said: 'We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the undue stress caused and for the length of time  it has taken to resolve this matter. We have refunded the original capital invested plus interest.

'On the occasions when we investigate customer complaints, we take on board what went wrong and work to ensure the lessons  are learned.'

Reuters