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Animal testing firm attacks 'cowardly' banks for rejecting its business
Last updated at 23:37pm on 25.04.07The boss of one of Britain's biggest animal testing companies has accused the High Street banks of being too cowardly to take its business.
Huntingon Life Sciences is a £100m a year firm which made a profit of £10m last year - but it is struggling to find a bank to handle its accounts.
Managing director Brian Cass claims banks took fright five years ago when animal rights extremists began targeting the firm, their customers and suppliers - including banks and insurers.
Its former bankers Natwest held their nerve for a while, even when vandals started superglueing the firm's cash machines.
Indignant: Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences accused banks of running scared
But the Royal Bank of Scotland, which bought NatWest, got cold feet and pulled out, leaving HLS to fall back on the Government.
Now the firm's UK transactions are written on Bank of England cheques signed on behalf of the New York Stock Exchange-listed company by an official of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Mr Cass said: "We would dearly love to have a High Street bank account again.
"But even with all the progress made by the whole establishment there is not one bank that will get off its backside and say it's time to provide a normal service.
"We still can't get banking or insurance in the UK. No one in this organisation can write a cheque on a UK bank.
"That's despite the fact that we are the biggest private sector employer in Huntingdonshire."
New legislation has led to a clampdown on fanatics but the financial services sector has still not forgotten the past.
HLS has withstood years of campaigning but the problem got worse when activists started switching their attention to companies which dealt with the controversial laboratories.
Banks as well as insurance, security and pharmaceutical companies faced noisy protests, office invasions, vandalism, arson, bomb hoaxes, abusive mail and phone calls.
Initially, the New York Stock Exchange refused to list HLS after campaigners threatened to target the exchange but it has since taken on the company.
Mr Cass said: "There's a challenge for the financial community.
"As a company we are stronger than we have ever been. It's time for them to recognise that and step forward."
HLS says it is hurt by being bracketed with armaments and tobacco companies because animals are used in some of its research.
Mr Cass added: "What we do is to protect human life and to protect the environment. Why are we linked with armaments manufacturers and tobacco companies? It's a bit naïve.
"From a business point of view it would be ethical to give us a bank account. They are very happy to benefit personally from the work we do."
HLS says that intimidation by animal rights activists is a thing of the past.
High Court injunctions obtained by itself and some customers, including pharmaceutical giants such as Glaxo Smith Kline, combined with changes in the criminal law and determined policing and criminal justice, have reduced the level of intimidation that accompanied early targeting of the company.
