British expats are still no nearer a deal with French bank Société Générale in their fight for compensation after a Dordogne conman used a security loophole to defraud them of €2m.

The group of 12 mostly British victims are continuing to push the bank to repay their losses, saying bank staff were negligent in allowing conman Graham Templeton to use a banking loophole to fleece them.

Now, a year after Templeton was jailed for two years at Bordeaux, he is living in the south of England as a free man after serving his sentence at a prison outside Paris.

While the victims are furious that he has been released from jail early, they say they will fight on. Most have been offered 85% repayment, but they are angry the bank has refused to pay more than 75% to the only French victim.

A friend spoke for them and said: “As far as Templeton is concerned, it’s over. We wanted the bank to behave competently when we gave it our money and it didn’t: now we want it to behave decently to repay the money it has lost.”

Templeton used a banking loophole to get the money: he pretended to be a financial adviser for a fund backed by Société Générale. The victims paid cheques made out to the bank and the bank allowed Templeton to pay the money into his own account simply by signing the back.

The loophole is still wide open and the French Banking Federation has refused to comment on the practice.

Now British MEP Sharon Bowles, who chairs the parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, is investigating the loophole.