Not upheld: alleged technical glitch causing duplicate transaction and resulting tax liability and missed investment gains complaint against Scottish Equitable Plc trading as AEGON

Decision detail

Summary

Mr N complained that a glitch in AEGON's online portal caused him to unintentionally duplicate a sale of JPM European Growth Fund units on 18 October 2024, resulting in an unintended capital gain of £15,000 and £3,000 in capital gains tax liability, plus missed investment growth on the uninvested proceeds. AEGON rejected the complaint, stating the transactions were carried out as instructed and no system issues were reported. The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of a technical glitch in AEGON's system, noting that transaction records showed all sales processed successfully within minutes and AEGON had no record of system failures that day. The ombudsman determined that Mr N had a responsibility to check his transaction history before retrying the transaction and to mitigate losses by reinvesting the cash promptly rather than waiting for AEGON's complaint investigation. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of a technical glitch in AEGON's system, noting that AEGON had no record of system issues, no other customers reported problems, and Mr N provided no screenshots or evidence of the alleged freeze. The transaction records showed all three sales went through smoothly within minutes of each other. The ombudsman determined that AEGON, as an execution-only service provider, was entitled to assume instructions were valid and intended, consistent with its terms and conditions. The ombudsman held that Mr N had a responsibility to check his transaction history after initiating the first sale, particularly if he believed technical issues had occurred, and should have contacted AEGON before attempting the transaction again. Regarding claimed losses from missed capital growth, the ombudsman found these resulted from Mr N's own failure to mitigate losses by not checking his account promptly (discovering the issue five weeks later) and by choosing not to reinvest the cash while his complaint was being investigated, despite having no assurance AEGON would reverse the transaction.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website