Edinburgh woman reunited with safe deposit box containing ‘irreplaceable’ family jewels - after RBS loses track of it

An Edinburgh woman has been reunited with a safe containing her family heirlooms – after discovering the bank had lost track of it.

Carole Mowat last week revealed RBS had lost her safe deposit box holding various jewellery including her mother’s rare alexandrite ring and a star sapphire, bought in Sri Lanka in the 1950s.

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News on Monday, a relieved Ms Mowat said that the box has now been found by bank staff. She said: “I am glad it’s not still missing because I’ve been really quite fraught because it contained so many irreplaceable items.

“But I am really not happy with the situation and the incompetence and stress involved in getting it to me.”

The Edinburgh Evening News reported on Wednesday that Ms Mowat planned to access the safe deposit box to view her grandmother’s birth certificate and find out whether she could claim Irish residency to obtain an EU passport.

But after contacting a RBS call centre a week ago last Thursday to make an appointment, she was told the Castle Street branch it was kept in for decades had been closed down a few years ago - despite her receiving no notification at the time.

The 56-year-old said she was told on the phone, prior to her concerns being elevated to a complaint handler who she says hung up the call, that the box may have been moved to another RBS branch in the city’s West End - but when she visited the branch on Monday last week the staff there were none the wiser.

Then on Wednesday evening, Ms Mowat was contacted by someone from RBS to say they believed they had found her safe deposit box and an appointment was made for her to visit the branch on Thursday morning.

The star sapphire ring bought in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in the 1950s was among the items inside the safe deposit box. Carole Mowat (right) and her mother and father, Thelma and Fred Hardacre, on their wedding day. Pictures: Carole Mowat.

'There was nothing to identify it'

However, she was left “gobsmacked” when staff presented her with a box from her private safe, which she says is only accessible by simultaneously turning a key that she holds along with one held by the bank. She said the box also had a “loosely attached” sticker on it bearing a number, as well as a padlock on it that she had never seen before.

Ms Mowat said the bank then had to arrange for a contractor to come and remove the padlock when it became apparent she did not have a key for it.

She said: “If that (sticker) had come off, I don’t know if I would have found it. If they put a padlock on the box, why did they not put something undamageable showing the box number, or a client name or some kind of reference number? There was nothing on it to identify it.

The Japaenese Mikimoto cultured pearls (left) and the grey coloured ones are the natural black Baroque pearls.

“I don’t believe it was found because anyone properly tracked it down. I think it was found because people were raking about and someone put their hands on it and found the box with my number on it.”

The safe deposit box was padlocked after it was not collected from the Castle Street branch, then moved to the West End branch.

Rare jewels

The box concerned had belonged to Ms Mowat’s mother, Thelma Hardacre, for 30 years before she inherited it herself about 20 years ago.

Carole's great-grandmother's wedding ring, made from the gold and copper mines in Australia/ The gold pendant her grandparents commissioned for her mother (and the item it was copied from)/ The safe deposit box which was found by RBS staff after Carole complained about it going missing.

Its contents included family paperwork and several jewels collected by her mother from her travels in the 1950s when she worked as a beautician and hairdresser on board the prestigious Cunard cruise liners.

Among the valuables is a rare star sapphire bought by her mother in the ‘50s in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) which was made into a ring with diamonds, a wedding ring made from the copper and gold of mines once owned by her great grandparents in Australia - and her mother’s engagement ring.

Another ring inside which belonged to her mother contains the highly valuable gemstone alexandrite, which displays a sharp change of colour from blue-green in daylight to red-purple in artificial light.

Ms Mowat initially believed her father Fred Hardacre’s World War II medals were also in the safe and feared the worst when she could not find them - but another family member has since confirmed they have them.

Other contents included a three-coloured gold - white, yellow and rose - heavy pendant commissioned for her mother by her grandparents, a wedding ring and other jewellery belonging to her mother’s friend, up to five cocktail watches including at least one gold one bought in New York around 1955, Japanese Mikimoto pearls and a natural black pearl necklace.

Ms Mowat initially wanted to access the safe deposit box last Monday to view her grandmother Ann Murray’s birth certificate to check whether she was born in Ireland, with the intention of applying for Irish residency to obtain an EU passport and circumvent any difficulties with new Brexit rules.

Carole's mother, Thelma Hardacre, on her travels in Naples (left) and in Palma Mallorca.

It has since transpired she was in fact born in Broxburn, West Lothian, which Ms Mowat says will lead her to doing some more family research.

Ms Mowat has logged a complaint with RBS and expects to hear back within the next couple of months about any improvements to procedures which could help prevent a repeat.

She added: “A catalogue of errors like this should not be brushed under the carpet.

“I don’t believe I would have had the ‘quick’ resolution I had without the intervention and help of the Evening News.”

Ms Mowat will now store the valuable items in another safe she owns at the RBS St Andrew Square branch and plans to close the box she had at their West End branch.

A RBS spokesperson said: “Our team has been in contact with Ms Mowat and we are pleased to have confirmed the location of the security deposit box. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

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