Give me my money back!

NOT the note I wanted . . . Justine with the lost property recept issued by Sainsbury’s

A MUM was left stunned after Sainsbury’s staff refused to hand over money she had withdrawn only moments earlier from the store’s own cash point.

Justine Newman, of Hillspring Road, Springhead, withdrew £60 from the Union Street supermarket’s hole-in-the-wall but forgot to take the money from the machine before entering the store.

Realising her mistake, Ms Newman (47) rushed back outside when another customer, accompanied by a security guard, found her and said he had handed the notes to customer services.

However, when all three approached the desk, staff said they could not immediately hand the cash back as it did not follow store procedure.

Ms Newman, a careers adviser, said: “I was stunned, I felt like someone had stolen from me. The customer services woman had the money in her hand but said she didn’t know what to do and called a manager.

“I made them call my bank right there and then, who confirmed the transaction had taken place.

“But supermarket staff said I still had to get my bank to email Sainsbury’s bank to inform them in writing of the transaction.

“And they said it could take 12 weeks for the money to be credited to my account.”

Ms Newman, mother to 16-year-old Harley, said she was forced to borrow money from relatives to tide her over until pay day.

She said: “I’m livid. The £60 was the last bit of money I had in my account until pay day and I was going to spend it inside the store anyway on food.

“If the money had been inside a purse, it would have been handed back immediately.

“I called Sainsbury’s headquarters when I got home on Friday and even they couldn’t understand why common sense hadn’t come into play and why I hadn’t been given my money back.

“I’m so grateful to the man who found the money, it was such an act of kindness and restores your faith in humanity.

“But I’d hate this to happen to someone who hasn’t got access to any other cash.”

A spokeswoman for Sainsburys Finance said: “In order to protect our customers and ensure that the money is returned to its rightful owner, staff in-store must follow a standard security procedure, which was explained to the customer who had approached staff to say she had lost the money.

“This involves the customer contacting their own card-issuing bank who will then follow standard UK banking practices by submitting a claim to us to reimburse the money.

“The customer has a 12-week window to file this claim.

“As soon as we receive notification of such a claim, we investigate it and if found to be valid, the money is reimbursed to the customer’s bank who will then pass that to the customer.

“Our customer services now have the customer’s details and will contact her to assist her with processing her query as quickly as possible.”