A charity that raises funds for disabled children claims a bank has lost £1,700 of cash they had raised – and is refusing to reimburse it.

Christleton-based Children Today, who raise money to buy disabled children vital specialist equipment, allege that the Chester branch of Lloyds Bank is refusing to take the blame for the error, meaning the money, which was donated as part of the charity’s annual Christmas appeal, may never be retrieved.

Following numerous attempts to contact the bank, a spokesperson eventually told The Chronicle  it would be looking into the matter ‘urgently’.

Fundraising manager Ruth Wilson said she has been taking donated money to Lloyds for years and has never had a problem before.

She told The Chronicle she had taken 80 separate cheques totalling £1,700 donated to the appeal by various charity supporters, to the bank just before Christmas last year.

“We’ve always taken the cheques there to be processed and this time was no different. I paid in the cheques which were in a sealed bag and received a stamped receipt as usual,” she said.

“I thought no more of it until a few weeks later when our accountant was going through the books and noticed a big hole in our bank account - the cheques had not been paid in,” added Ruth.

“We send out the appeal to regular supporters across the country, so it wasn’t just people from Chester who donated, but people from all over the UK.

“When I went in to ask Lloyds they said they couldn’t find a trace of the cheques and that they couldn’t help us. There was never a dispute that I didn’t bring the cheques in, it’s either that the  money never arrived or it’s just been lost somewhere down the line.”

Ruth said she has asked the bank a number of times over the last few months to write a letter of explanation to the people who had donated, but says they will not do so.

“We are a really small charity and this amount of money is a lot to us,” she said.

“It would have funded much-needed equipment for disabled children.”

A Lloyds Bank spokesperson said: "We are investigating the matter urgently."