Large sum of money paid into my account in error am I obliged to pay it back?

[sjc1976]

I have had a sum exceeding �8000 paid into my bank account by a finance company whom I currently deal with. I left the money but did not question it as we were told that some sort of credit would be made to my account, as my partner is about to give birth and has been in and out of hospital recently, obviously this is my priority. This was over 2 weeks ago and I have today recieved a phone call from them asking for it back. I informed them that it is not all there as some was swallowed up by my overdraft and bills have come out since then etc. I asked them when they were aware of the error and they informed me the date that it was actually paid into the account was the date they were aware of the error. I asked them why, in that case had they not made a curteosy call to inform me of the error as I could have done something about it sooner, instead they wait two weeks and then make a phone call 'as a matter of urgency' requesting the sum be repaid. As I am not in the position to repay the amount in full, am I actually obliged to do so anyway? This was their error and on no part of mine is it fraudulent??

[Eve]

Unfortunately it's not your money, it's theirs and you will need to return it.

I would have said you shouldn't be out of pocket due to their error so you could get them to cover any bank charges for sending the money back etc...

How much are you short?

[Ethel]

They will argue though that you would have saved interest on your overdraft and would not have been able to pay the bills were the money not there, incurring yet more charges.

In any event, the money has to be repaid - pay back as much as you can straight away and make arrangements to repay the rest.

[factor-fiction]

The money isn't yours and needs to be repaid. You shouldn't have spent it if it wasn't yours. Genuine mistakes do happen with transferring money- if ever you were to transfer money electronically and accidentally entered the wrong account number for the recipient, you'd expect to get your money back wouldn't you?

[Buenchico]

Because the money is not yours, civil law imposes a duty upon you to return it.

However, criminal law (Section 5(4)Theft Act 1968) states that where you do not abide by such a duty, you're committing a criminal offence (punishable by a maximum of 7 years imprisonment).

Chris