11:18am Friday 5th October 2007
By Charlie Campbell
IT looked like there had been some junior financial malpractice when the bank account of 13-month-old Wanstead baby Griss Debono went £2,000 into the red.
The mystery began when Griss's mother, Marie, of Fitzgerald Road opened a £1,000 account for the tot with the Woolwich building society.
When she went to the branch, which has since been taken over by Barclays, to check on the account, however, she found that someone had been dipping into it.
She said: "I said that can't be right', so I asked them for a statement and I saw it was overdrawn. They said yes that's your bank account and I said no it's not, it's a child's. The cashier got quite stroppy with me and called the manager who said we will have to look into this, and they said we will get in touch with you."
Weeks went by without Mrs Debono hearing anything from the bank so she complained to the bank's head office and the money was eventually replaced.
A spokesman for Barclays said on Wednesday: "After she left the branch, the next person who saw the cashier asked for a sum of money from their account and the cashier inadvertently typed in Mrs Debobo's details. We didn't have a contact number for her so we couldn't reach her by phone."
He added: "We have reviewed the situation and we have arranged for £50 to be issued to her which covers the lost income and the inconvenience. There is a bunch of flowers being sent to her, and we've spoken to the branch manager and the cashier about the importance of correct and accurately processing transactions.
"We might not have had a current number for her but we could have written to her and double checked. I think there are some learns here."
Mrs Debono is looking forward to the flowers but it looks like baby Griss will be doing his banking from elsewhere now.
She said: "I'm happy they are doing what they said but I am taking the money
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