Money Paid Into My Account By Accident Now They Want It Back !

[Iggle Piggle]

Back in August some money appeared in my account from some random firm.
Today I received a polite letter from my bank asking for the money back.
Do I have to give it back? can the bank not claim on some insurance for lost money?
It seems a bit weird that they can just ask for it back after this long.

[Baldric]

Oh Dear!

[Old_Geezer]

Good point. If you don't have the funds now, a month or so later, then it wasn't likely to be hiding at the time among the other thousands you had then. Took a risk it wouldn't be noticed then.

[Mamyalynne]

More than that OH, they contacted the Bank about it, then proceeded to spend it - quite bizarre.

[Mamyalynne]

^OG

[DrFilth]

offer to pay it back at £5 a month, they get their money back and you will not be left short. then both of you are happy

[boxtops]

I don't see why they should agree a repayment plan on an instalment as small as that. Iggle knew it wasn't his money - spending it, IMO, is fraudulent.

[paross]

This hopefully is a weird coincidence. In early August I wrote a cheque for £1000. It was taken out of my account on 12th, taken out again on 15th, put back in on 16th and taken out again on 22nd. When I received my monthly statement and saw this cock-up I rang immediately and was told it would be sorted in 48hrs. To cut a long story short it has taken almost 2 months for them to trace the culprit and reinstate my account. They rang me on Tuesday to inform me all was now well and I have had interest and compo credited to my account amounting to £195.

[hc4361]

If you still want to emigrate to Canada this is the sort of thing that can stop you.
Pay it back, even if you have to borrow it.

[yogasun]

Funny how we are all different. If I saw £1000 in my account that wasn't mine I'd be in a panic to get it back to its rightful owner and wouldn't touch a penny of it.

[FredPuli43]

You are legally bound to account for the money, pay it back. If you spent it in all innocence and by mistake that would help you if you were charged with stealing it; your doing so would not be seen as dishonest; but the money still belongs to someone else, they are entitled to it, and could sue for the sum in civil law. To take a simple example: if I take someone's umbrella, mistaking it for mine, that is not theft but they are still entitled to their umbrella back.

[Baldric]

About 25 yrs ago, I had a large amount of money (£10k+) transferred to my account from somewhere in the EU. I put it in a separate B/Soc. account,
it's still there, no one ever asked it's grown quite nicely over the years.

[hc4361]

Not only could you be sued in a civil court you could be prosecuted in a criminal court under the Theft Act 1968 for 'retaining wrongful credit'.
"A person is guilty of an offence if:
(a) a wrongful credit has been made to an account kept by him or in respect of which he has any right or interest;
(b) he knows or believes that the credit is wrongful; and
(c) he dishonestly fails to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that the credit is cancelled."

All three of those conditions have been satisfied. Pay it back.

[gness]

Oh, Iggle...what you did is so wrong....even if it was some random firm.
As she went off to uni my daughter found £1000 in her bank account... a mistake.
My...she could have used that money..but she's my daughter and did what I would expect her to do.

[Hypognosis]

@FredPuli43

the umbrella analogy is good at setting out the principle but it's barely applicable to the situation here, imho. A bank account is an artificial concept, and the unexplained money is hardly the same as a 3-dimensional object which can be picked up in error.

This is not to say I am sympathetic with Iggle Piggle's predicament. The obvious question is the provenence of the funds - what did the bank statement say about the source of the incoming money?

Answer:- "some random firm".

One can hardly claim to have spent the money in good faith having admitted that the name of the source of the funds was not recognised as one that IP had had dealings with.

So, it's not the same as a salary overpayment error, where the payee trusts his/her emplyer to calculate their pay correctly and accepts what is paid to them (and spends it) "in good faith".

[Peter Pedant]

hey it may be my rent !

is your bank acct no ........ ?

Being a cheque man myself ( > 60 y we all are)
one of my dim tenants has
electronically paid [rent] into someone else's acct.

a) she can't afford to [lose it]
b) she hasnt paid her rent
c) bank is a bit a+al about telling her where it is

and I think she is in the position of 'can I have the money back please ?' since I gave her the correct details and it was she who transposed the sort-code. - talk about having to learn the hard way to be more careful

You know the money isnt yours - you should give it back
[ and put her mind at rest ]

[ClaryS]

this happened to me just before we went on holiday . I deposited £750 into my current account and the computers were playing up. When I got home I checked on line that the money had gone in and noticed it had been credited shortly after the £750 by £980, probably due to the computer malfunction. I was flying out that night so thought I would sort it out when I got back home. However, on checking my account online a few days later the extra £980 had been debited by my bank, and when I arrived home after two weeks there was a letter waiting for me explaining why they had recovered the money. So banks can take money out of your account without your permission if a mistake has been made

[Peter Pedant]

paross - we can fight for it !
custard pies at 50 paces ?

I think it is useful for people to see what it is like from the losers point of view. and Good Luck in the restoration
one didge wrong and the whole thing goes to America

[Iggle Piggle]

After that furore, may I take this opportunity to replace the 'My' and 'I' in the question with 'Her' and 'She' as I have now given my friend the advice offered.
Thank you all ! ;-)