Dereliction of responsibility by multiple authorities is letting victims of the £138m family trust scandal down

The building societies have brushed off responsibility despite housing unregulated advisers, who sold the expensive family trusts, under their roofs.

The police won’t be investigating until administrators have done their work but the job of the administrator is to recover the money lost not investigate criminality. So what is the hold up?

And now the revelations of the whistleblower, who warned the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), shed serious doubt on the efficacy of the regulator.

For the Treasury to simply wash its hands of responsibility in the face of compelling evidence of regulatory failings is absurd. Who regulates the financial regulators, if not the Treasury?

It is high time that politicians across Parliament took a keen interest in this case. Victims can’t continue to hit a brick wall when they approach their local MPs.

The investigation undertaken by this newspaper has revealed undisputed evidence of repeated failings, strengthening the case for redress for victims.

It beggars belief that the FCA didn’t intervene and that a criminal investigation has not been brought forward to assess if offences have been committed.

The role played by building societies in this scandal must not be overlooked either. They are trusted more than banks by customers. It’s not good enough for them to simply shrug off responsibility.

The complexities of this case are myriad and far too much to get into in this column but the consequences are tragic. Therefore it is important that the victims of this scandal are not forgotten.