Stealing From Bank Account

[tina88]

I have recently received probate from my late step dads estate. I was sole beneficiary and executor of the estate. I have 1 brother who hated my step dad and my step dad hated him. I have also received bank statements of my step dad and have discovered that whilst he was in a nursing home £10k was taken out of his post office account at £600 a time over a period of 6 months. 6 months previous to this I discovered my brother was taking money from a different account of my step dads and I made him put this back, a total of £4k. Prior to this he helped himself to £10k from our late mothers bank so he does have previous. I am going to inform the Post Office as well as the probate solicitor. Where do I stand here, would the Post Office reimburse the estate and take up the matter themselves or is it up to me to prove it was my brother. I wouldn't have thought they would still have cctv. The withdrawals from the post office were taken from the same areas as the withdrawals from the bank account. The withdrawals from mums post office account were also from the same ATM's. I can produce evidence of the paper trail that my brother repaid the £4k. I am not sure which is the best route to go down.

[Buenchico]

No bank (including the Post Office) would consider reimbursing the money unless you could first show that you'd reported the matter to the police.

Even then there's no evidence (as far as the Post Office is concerned) to show that the withdrawals were fraudulent. As far as they know, your stepfather could have given his PIN to your brother and invited him to withdraw the funds. Indeed, they will always assume that someone making a withdrawal is the account holder, or a person authorised by them to make such a withdrawal, unless there's clear evidence to the contrary.

As an example, a colleague of mine had money taken from his account without his knowledge on several occasions. He eventually found out that his sister's boyfriend had been borrowing his bank card from his wallet while he was asleep. However he still couldn't get the money refunded as the bank (correctly) ruled that he must have made his PIN known to the thief, either by writing it down or by letting him see it when he entered it into a cash machine.

So the chances of you getting the money refunded from the Post Office are almost certainly NIL.

You can either report the theft to the police and hope that the court, as well as punishing him for the offence, will make an order for him to repay the money to you or you can take civil action against your brother.

To proceed with civil action you would first need to send him a formal demand for repayment of the money. That demand must:
a) show your name and address ;
b) show his name and address ;
c) be dated ;
d) clearly indicate that it is a demand for payment ;
e) clearly show the amount demanded ;
f) clearly state the reason for the demand ;
g) indicate that if payment is not received within a defined period (of, perhaps, 28 days) you will commence legal action in pursuance of the debt ; and (obviously)
h) be signed by you.
It would also be best to send the letter by recorded delivery (even if you see him daily), so that you can prove that he received the demand.

Then, if he fails to pay within the designated period, you can use the online small claims procedure to seek a court order against him:
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

[fiction-factory]

I agree with Chris. You would need to report this to the police. This might prompt your brother to pay some or all of it back. In fact even the threat of going to the police may have the same result.
However the whole process could be difficult for you in terms of giving statements, providing records, etc and you have to bear in mind that even if he is prosecuted or you win a civil case you may never see most of the money if he claims he hasn't got it.
It depends how important that £10000 (or part thereof) is to you and how much you want to see him punished.

[bednobs]

hiw on earth did the brother get the card and PIN?

[fiction-factory]

There may be difficulties proving that he didn't have permission to withdraw the money

[EDDIE51]

First thing to do, if you have not done it already , is change the PIN, and cancel the card( he could have duplicated the card)tell the post office that the card PIN is known so that any cards on the account are cancelled.

[tina88]

I reported it to the police today and I am going to see someone at the station next week. Thanks for replies. Bank account was closed some time back. This brother has been reported to the police previously when caught stealing from my mums account, whilst mum was in hospital, although the theft was not picked up until after she died, he also took one amount the day after she died, he told the police he had her permission, when questioned why he took some the day after she died he said he forgot !! The police knew he was lying but didn't have enough evidence to do anything