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Student's suicide over debt worries
30/01/2006 15:30:00
A student hung himself over debt worries, his family believe.
Geraint Banks-Wilkinson, 20, hung himself after his bank cancelled his £1,000 overdraft.
His body was found hanging at his student flat in Swansea, the day after Geraint had a tearful meeting with HSBC, during which the bank said it was calling in his overdraft facility.
His parents have responded angrily and are calling on HSBC to explain why it treated their son as a normal customer, not a student with a student bank account and regular student loan payments.
"He thought it was okay for a student to have an overdraft of £1,000," his mother Marian Banks-Wilkinson told the Western Mail.
She complained that she and her husband were caught in a financial trap, unable to fully support their son but earning too much for him to receive full financial support.
Nevertheless, Mrs Banks-Wilkinson maintained that Geraint had been trying to manage his money, working part-time at McDonalds to supplement his loan.
"But the collections department at the HSBC were after him. They told him to go into his local branch to sort it out but when he did he was told no one there could help him. They rang our home and I gave them Geraint's mobile number but they either didn't get through or he couldn't speak to them because of his job," she said.
Geraint's parents maintain that debt concerns motivated his suicide and an inquest has been opened and adjourned.
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