UK banks - A most unscrupulous situation

It is common knowledge in the Bitcoin community that the major banks in the UK do no care much for Bitcoin. There have been many occasions in which legitimate Bitcoin business have been refused business banking services by the banks in the UK, even some events in which banks originally granted banking services to a business, later deciding to cancel this provision without warning, leaving businesses in a state of anxiety as they now cannot operate anymore. However disapproving the banks were with Bitcoin, I'd have never thought that I'd become a victim of these old establishments (at such a young age of sixteen years old too), plunging me into turmoil. My story starts with the Spanish bank Santander.
As an entrepreneurial teen, I was ever attentive for an idea that could set me in a stone solid career in enterprise. After a sporadic year of thinking and experimenting, in 2013, I came across Bitcoin. Seeing a gap in the UK market, I did what any entrepreneur might do and started trading (using my Santander account). From a rough start, through hard work and decisiveness, I managed by June of 2014, to get to a point where my trading volume surpassed £40,000 per day. At 16, this for me, was a success.
However, I could never have anticipated what came next. On June 23rd (a few weeks later), I find that my 123 current account had been "stopped". Not knowing at the time, what the reason was for this occurring, I gave Santander a call and was instructed to go into a branch with proof of ID. I didn't waste any time at all, I went straight down to my local branch, presented them my situation and ID, and they assured me that they would call the relevant department's number and figure out what I should do next. Whilst on the phone, the branch manager asked me for the source of the recent credits to my account. I said (naively I must admit) the credits were from the sale of Bitcoins. After quite a while on the phone discussing my case (or being put on hold) and after me explaining, in depth, what bitcoin was, I was finally told that I needed to hand over some sort of "proof of ownership" for the funds in my account, a phrase which I would become all too familiar with as my story progresses. I returned soon after with the required proof in the form of receipts for the trading day just before the account was stopped. It was faxed over to the relevant department twice and I was told that I'd be contacted "with regards to this case very soon". This was the point at which it went downhill. On July 28th, I received a later stating that my account had been closed and that there were no funds in the account (which was completely untrue). After a further visit to the branch, the branch manager informed me that all the funds had been removed from my account by Santander and had been placed in what seemed to be a holdings account at Santander. I was then told that I had no right to the funds that had been taken out of my account, there was nothing I can do.
This was ridiculous, the bank had seemed to relieve me of the right to my own money and then utterly block me out by refusing to communicate. By August 6th, I had decided I'd had enough and wrote a letter to the CEO Ana Botin, explaining the situation, which was answered 6 days later by an executive complaints manager. After a bit of correspondence, I was told on August 26th, that a cheque for the amount on my account would be sent to my address and surely enough it arrived. I was relieved, thinking that was the end of this terrible situation. How wrong I was.
To deposit the cheque, I needed a bank account, so I went into Lloyds (and NatWest) to open one on August 28th. They informed me that I had to deposit the cheque into a savings account because the funds on the cheque were too large to be deposited into a current account. I agreed for them to open a savings account linked to my current account and they deposited the cheque into this newly opened savings account. The funds became available for use on September 4th but after a few attempts at moving funds to my current account without success, I decided something is wrong here. I went to see a banker at the local branch (on September 8th) who brought to my attention that both of my accounts had had a block placed on them, which I was told was probably at the cause of cheque I had deposited and was therefore told to bring in proof that I was the owner of the funds which I deposited using the cheque. This request was confirmed in a letter from Fraud Operations dated September 12th that stated “If you do not provide any response or satisfactory documents within 14 days, this letter is notice that we will close your account within 60 days of the date of this letter.” On September 20th, I went into the branch with a statement from Santander, with the £24,696.34 in question on it and my full name and spoke to another branch manager who called the Fraud Operations, faxed the documents that I had brought in (which they requested), and told me that my account was to be closed; I would receive a cheque at my home address with the £24,696.34 in question within 10 working days. This was in complete contrast to the letter I had received which stated I had 14 days “to provide a response or satisfactory documents.” The cheque never showed up. I was blatantly lied to.
After sending letters and emails to Lloyds without response (even now, three full months later), I decided to return to the branch to explain again, the situation. This was met with an explanation that Santander had reported that the cheque was lost or stolen, that is why Lloyds had blocked the account. After contacting Santander about the allegation, this proved to be untrue. I had been lied to again. After the holidays towards the end of the year, I decided to call the fraud department myself and was informed that they had not received any proof of ownership. They would need to receive proof of ownership in order to make a final decision. A week later, I returned with the same information that had supposedly been faxed off before, this time making sure the team on the other end of the phone confirmed receipt of these documents. I am now waiting for a response from Lloyds.
But no, this is not the end either. We now come on to Barclays. Before this situation started, I had three bank accounts, one was with Santander which was opened by my mother on my behalf, the others, with Barclays, which I chose to open myself. As I said earlier, when Santander placed a stop on my account, I had no idea why it was placed at all, so I continued to trade Bitcoins with one of my Barclays accounts for fear of losing customers and in turn my business, which resulted in a block being administrated later on that week (July 25th). As I tried to find out what had happened, I was repeatedly told that my account was “under review, there is nothing more we can tell you”.
On August 1st I received a letter informing me that both of my accounts would be closed and that I’d have to make another trip to a branch to reclaim any funds that were left in both of the accounts. I did so, and was told again my account was under review and there was nothing more they could’ve told me. Also, after seeking advice from a friend of my mother, I made a freedom of information request to CIFAS, which uncovered shockingly that Barclays had put a "flag" against my name, branding me "first party to fraud".
To this day, I have not received any communication from Barclays at all with regards to the situation. I have made numerous attempts to send proof of ownership to various addresses given by bank managers at my branch, all of which have been unsuccessful. It seems everybody at Barclays is clueless, and that the department that handled (if they ever did) my case, has simply forgotten that I exist.
I end with the most recent happening with my ongoing banking situation; NatWest. This Thursday (29/01/2015), my account with NatWest had access to it blocked because somebody attempted to send funds to my account with NatWest without my knowledge. After calling NatWest, they informed me that this payment had stopped but my account was still blocked because they plan to investigate the "activity on my account". There is not much more to say about this new case, because as I am writing this, it is only a few days old.
NatWest had been the bank that I had relied on throughout this situation to gain access to some sort of funding, so this was in fact the final touch that has tipped me over the edge. It's unfortunate to say that the entrepreneurial spirit that once charged me risk and inspired those around me to achieve, has been exorcised. I am now completely discouraged.
Unlike many bitcoin enthusiasts, I do not hold contempt for the banking system or "old establishment" (although I really should). The sharing of my situation isn't an attempt to gain sympathy or foster hatred against these "old establishments", but to highlight this situation in order to gain advice. I thank you with extraordinary grace if you have taken the time to read this to the end, and will do the same for any responses you may put to me.