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Deal or no deal? Noel Edmonds raises Lloyds compensation claim to £300m

TV star Noel Edmonds has increased his compensation claim against Lloyds Banking Group to £300m for a fraud carried out by HBOS staff.

It emerged last month that the former Deal or No Deal and Noel's House Party host was seeking £50m.

But on Tuesday he confirmed the claim - for losses allegedly suffered when his former business Unique Group was destroyed because of the "industrial scale" fraud - had been ramped up.

Lloyds, which rescued HBOS at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, has set aside a £100m compensation pot for the fraud victims.

Mr Edmonds is now pushing for three times that amount for the "deep distress and public humiliation" he has suffered.

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The celebrity, who revealed in an interview last month that he tried to kill himself in 2005 as his firm collapsed, claims Unique Group was among firms affected by the historic £245m loans scam by HBOS employees in Reading, who were jailed earlier this year.

In a new statement he described a review being carried out by the bank into the scandal as a "cynical ploy to keep victims' compensation pay-outs to the bare minimum".

He said: "We now have documentary evidence to support the view of Thames Valley Police, the judiciary and the CPS that the HBOS criminality extended far beyond the 'Reading 6'.

"This explains why Lloyds created the secretive review process in an attempt to limit their liability to a very small number of victims when of course, as they are well aware, the true figure is in the thousands."

He added: "Lloyds are about to discover their Griggs Review, a cynical ploy to keep victims' compensation pay-outs to the bare minimum, is like trying to plug an active volcano with a cork."

Lloyds has so far made more than £10m of compensation offers and hardship payments to customers affected by the fraud, which took place between 2003 and 2007.

The lender said last week that 30 customers had either now received a compensation offer or were in the "detailed stages" of assessment and would receive an offer shortly.

Mr Edmonds' solicitor Jonathan Coad, from Keystone Law, has sent a submission of his findings to the bank's review, headed by Professor Russel Griggs, and also to the Thames Valley Police and the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.