Thankfully the Financial Ombudsman is a pretty good arbiter (for consumers), and when cases like this land on their desks they love to make examples of banks. I

Thankfully the Financial Ombudsman is a pretty good arbiter (for consumers), and when cases like this land on their desks they love to make examples of banks. It might take a couple of months, but expect this lady to get 100% of her money back, an apology, and a considerable amount of compensation back from HSBC.