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Following the sudden death of her partner Robert at their retirement home in Spain, Frances Griffiths decided to sell the property and return home to north Wales.

The sale went through as planned and Frances deposited a cheque for over 36,000 Euros, around £30,000, at her local branch of NatWest in February 2009.

A few days later she returned to the bank to withdraw some cash and discovered the money she was expecting in her account didn't seem to be there.

According to Frances, the bank acknowledged receiving the cheque but told her it had got lost in the system. She says staff at the branch were less than helpful.

"It's been a nightmare," she told X-Ray's Rachel Treadaway-Williams. "I went in the bank on one occasion and was told 'don't come in the bank again, we will contact you when we find it.'

"It's wrong. They have my money in that bank. I've sent letters, emails, and faxes. I was having letters back from NatWest saying: "Sorry we're still looking. I thought I'd never see it again."

Frances was getting more and more frustrated. And when she felt she couldn't get any further on her own with NatWest, she contacted her local Citizens Advice Bureau. Lesley Powell looked into the case for her.

Lesley says, "We wrote and explained the impact this was having on Mrs Griffiths, how she does have ill health and this has exacerbated her ill health.

"And given the stress levels it was causing, we'd asked them to look at it and try to expedite a resolution and look at it as a priority.

"We never received any response back from NatWest head office and I think from that time onwards Mrs Griffiths only received generic customer care letters."

As far as Frances was concerned, she'd deposited tens of thousands of pounds with a bank which seemed to have lost her money and were taking months to sort the problem out.

In the meantime things were getting tougher for her financially, and she had to rely on friends for loans.

Frances told Rachel, "I knew it was coming, but when? The days went into weeks and the weeks went into months and I was just sick of chasing it."

So, all this time, where was Frances' money? After four months without an answer, we thought she'd waited long enough, so X-Ray contacted NatWest.

Natwest has apologised to Frances. They said an error by staff at the Denbigh branch meant that the cheque had mistakenly been sent through a clearing system which couldn't deal with foreign currencies.

The bank says staff were "working tirelessly" to put things right. But it was only on the same day X-Ray got in touch with NatWest that more than thirty thousand pounds appeared in Frances' account.

But what about the interest, and the exchange rate, which has dropped significantly since the cheque was paid in?

Since we contacted NatWest, they've now offered Frances an additional £1,070.62 to make up for the difference, plus £500 for all the inconvenience. Frances is considering their offer, but for now, at least, she knows her money has finally been found.

Frances isn't alone in her dissatisfaction with service she received at her bank. In the last year there has been a 16% rise in complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service about banking problems like cheque clearing and money transfers.

Emma Parker from the Financial Ombudsman Service says: "If someone has a problem with their bank, the first thing to do is to complain to the bank itself and let them know what the problem is.

"Do this in writing, give them at least 8 weeks to try and resolve it, and if you're still not happy with the outcome then you can get in touch with us at the Financial Ombudsman Service.

"We can help by looking at the complaint, looking at both sides of the story before coming to a decision. If we uphold the complaint then it is binding on the business if consumer accepts it, but if the consumer doesn't accept it, their legal rights are not affected."

This year the Financial Ombudsman Service has received over 127,000 complaints about a wide range of topics, and they've upheld around 60% in the consumer's favour.

You can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service via their website:

They also have a consumer helpline, and will call you back if you're worried about the cost of calling them. The number is open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

• 0845 080 1800 - calls cost up to 4p a minute for BT customers - and may be free on some BT plans. But you will probably have to pay more if you use another phone company or call from a mobile phone.
• 0300 123 9 123 or 020 7964 0500 - these numbers may be cheaper if you use a mobile phone or a phone company other than BT - and will be "free" if you pay a monthly charge for calls to numbers starting 01 or 02.