Noel Edmonds is to take legal action against Lloyds Banking Group in a bid to secure as much as £300m for a fraud carried out by HBOS staff.

The former Deal or No Deal host attended mediation with his lawyer last Friday, but they walked out amid concerns the bank was not going to fulfil its pledge that victims would be compensated "swiftly, fairly and appropriately".

Mr Edmonds' losses were suffered when his former business, Unique Group, was allegedly destroyed by the £245m loans scam carried out by HBOS Reading staff between 2003 and 2007.

The corrupt financiers from the branch, who squandered the profits on high-end prostitutes and luxury holidays, were jailed earlier this year.

Mr Edmonds will now take his case to court, his lawyer Jonathan Coad confirmed.


"One reason for our confidence is that, back in 2008, when the bank sued Noel on its personal guarantee, such was the adverse legal advice it was getting from its then lawyers that it bribed Noel's business partner to the tune of around £1m to stop him supporting Noel's defence," Mr Coad said.

"Since then the bank's primary witness has been jailed, which greatly weakens its position."

:: Noel Edmonds reveals suicide bid after firm collapsed

Image: Lloyds has denied Mr Edmonds' claims

Mr Edmonds claims there is a culture of "dishonesty and concealment at Lloyds, which goes right to the top" and said he looked forward to exposing it during a trial.

Lloyds has set aside £100m for the victims, but a spokeswoman said it rejected the claim that it had caused Mr Edmonds' firm to collapse.

She said: "Despite Lloyds Banking Group's determined efforts to reach a consensual resolution with Mr Edmonds through mediation, this has not been possible. As a result, a formal litigation process has begun.

"We recognise Mr Edmonds suffered personal distress and inconvenience as a result of him interacting almost a decade ago with an ex-HBOS employee convicted earlier this year in relation to criminal conduct at HBOS Reading Impaired Assets office. However, we strongly refute that this caused his business to collapse."

A number of other businesses were destroyed as a result of the loans scam.

The bank has so far put forward 40 offers to companies affected, with 31 having accepted payouts totalling £27m.