Blackpool businessman backs film highlighting the banking scandal.

The showing of the film Spank the Banker in Parliament

Property owner Anthony Molyneaux said businesses needed to be aware of the scandal that occurred after the 2008 financial crunch, when thousands of small businesses who had taken out loans were said to have been forced into bankruptcy by the banks.

Many are now seeking compensation and some of the banks in question have put aside funds.

One of the banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland at the time put many of its indebted business customers into a special group – Global Restructuring Group – which was found to have mistreated thousands of firms, as acknowledged in a Financial Conduct Authority review in July last year.

Noel Edmonds and Juliette Mottram who say they are victims of a banking scandal, at the showing of a new film Spank the Banker

Three bankers from HBOS

The film Spank the Banker, by Bafta award-winning director Samir Mehanovic, was shown to MPs at the Houses of Parliament this month followed by a Q&A session.

Mr Molyneaux, who attended, said: “The film is being shown around the country, in Birmingham, Manchester and in Glasgow this week but we are hoping to get a screening here on the Fylde coast.

“Many of the businesses were small hotels and B&Bs, of which Blackpool has many and some people lost these businesses and as a result the roof over their heads as well. Some are still going, but the banks have taken over their card machines so in effect they are working to pay the bank and just keep a roof over their heads.

“I myself lost businesses. The film is remarkable and has some heart-breaking stories such as that of a woman Juliette Mottram, who had a successful business with 550 employees, but she and her and her five children were thrown out of their home.

“TV presenter Noel Edmonds is in the film too and was at Westminster to talk to MPs about his experiences. He is trying to sue Lloyds HBOS whose Reading office he blamed for wrecking his business at the time.”