Fish and Chips and Fraud

Mike and I discovered this past weekend that somebody had obtained access to our bank account and was buying things using our money.
We cancelled our debit cards (what they were using) over the phone but they needed a notarized form in order to reimburse us for the purchases made.
Sounds easy, doesn't it.
First, a notary in the UK is not the same as a notary in the US. Magistrates in the UK are notaries.  They don't want to spend their time authenticating signatures.
So, we tried to find someone who would do it.  Doctors in the UK will authenticate signatures but only if you are on their register of patients.
Banks used to authenticate but most have now stopped doing so, even for their customers.
However, we did find that Lloyds would authenticate for us if we opened an account there.
Today, we did just that, had the paperwork signatures authenticated, and faxed it out to our bank.
Success.

To celebrate, we went to the pub, had a pint and some fish and chips.  It was a lovely celebration!