Mystery Deposits!?

northernbloke_3 · 14 March 2005 at 5:42PM

My girlfriend's account has recently had 2 deposits made into it, both on Mondays and both for the same amount. It seems like it's someones wages being paid into her account. This is obviously the banks fault and she hasn't said anything. The money has been transfered into an ISA account to earn interest untill we hear anything from the bank. If we don't, at what point does t become hers? And if we do, can we do anything to stick it to the bank in question?

zzzLazyDaisy · 14 March 2005 at 6:10PM

It never becomes hers. The money belongs to someone else and the bank cannot transfer ownership to your her, because it does not have ownership in the first place. The bank has made a mistake. If she simply says nothing and uses the money for her own means (which includes putting it in a savings account an obtaining interest) she is leaving herself open to being the subject of a criminal investigation, and possible prosecution.

It might be different if she genuinely and reasonably believed that she was entitled to this money and acted to her detriment by spending it, honestly believing it to be hers, but that clearly is not the case here.

She should notify the bank immediately and give it back before she gets in so deep that she feels she can no longer own up.

Paul_Varjak · 14 March 2005 at 6:12PM

By transferring the money out of the account, when you know it is not yours, is tantamount to fraud!

And as you have transferred it to an ISA, presumably the intention is to keep it as, if you had to give the money back you presumably know that you have lost at least part of your ISA allowance for the year!

Milky_Mocha · 14 March 2005 at 6:26PM

How much money are we talking about?

elona · 14 March 2005 at 6:27PM

This happened to me when my bank credited £16,000 wrongly to me - i told them straight away but it still stayed in my account for over a month by which time I felt quite attached to it.

they did eventually remove the money and sent me a lovely bouquet of red roses by way of thanks.

I would still have liked the £16K though

:):)

Justin_Credit · 14 March 2005 at 6:30PM

I can only agree wholeheartedly with the others on this one.

IMO she should make sure she has sufficient funds in the account to cover these mystery deposits, in case a mystery debit comes along.

For sure somebody will eventually miss this money and it will be traced to your G/f's account, so I think she needs to contact them sooner rather than later.

Hope this is of some help.

JC

amandathepanda · 14 March 2005 at 7:31PM

It probably isn't the banks fault as the money will be going in directly from the other bank quoting your girlfriends details from one computer to the next. The person who the wages belong to has probably given the wrong account details. As soon as the person who the wages belong to realises that they haven't got the money they will complain to their own bank who will then investigate and be able to trace exactly where the money has gone.
My advice would be to tell your bank that the money isn't yours.

sunflower_2 · 14 March 2005 at 8:25PM

Justin_Credit wrote:

IMO she should make sure she has sufficient funds in the account to cover these mystery deposits, in case a mystery debit comes along.

JC

didnt think of that !
if the money has been transferred out of the account your g/f could end up being charged if goes overdrawn ?

the first thing i do on payday is check my bank balance to make sure all is well

cant believe this has gone un-noticed

but it will be easily traced and claimed back (unfortunately)
unless the "employer" has made the error and just pays the employee again...

u never know, pigs hav been known to fly in some parts of the country

newfoundglory · 15 March 2005 at 5:13PM

It definitely never becomes hers. I think what people are saying about fraud and everything is a bit wrong though.

I could be wrong here, but I am quite sure I don't think you are under any requirement to tell the bank about its error (although you could do if you so choose)... but you still *cannot* use and spend money which you know not to be yours.

The money isn't yours and you know that... but putting it in a high interest savings account would have been fine, because all you would have been doing is looking after it until the bank corrects its mistake and asks for it back (which it will do, and you will have to hand it back). They should allow you to keep the interest.

You wouldn't have lied, or acted dishonestly.

You didn't place it in a high interest savings account though, you picked an ISA, where government rules and all ISA terms and conditions state the money MUST BE YOUR OWN (which is isn't!). You are avoiding paying tax on interest on money which you know not to be yours, so i'd be honest about this part now in case the IR find out. You could have quite easily not read ISA account terms and conditions, or not understood governement rules, but i'd confess to the bank straight away...

AndyR_3 · 27 March 2005 at 7:22PM

You've said it's obviously the bank's fault - more likely someone's given their employer the wrong bank account details, or the employer has keyed the information into the computer wrongly. So the money actually belongs to a third party, not your partner or the bank. It will never become your partner's money.

Here is the legal bit:

Section 24A Theft Act 1968 makes it an offence for a person if:-

A wrongful credit has been made to an account kept by him / her or respect of which he / she has a right or interest;

He / she knows or believes that the credit is wrongful; and

He / she dishonestly fails to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that the credit is cancelled.

It's pretty clear, she should tell the bank about the error. To do otherwise is dishonest.

Tha banker/customer relationship is based on mutual trust, and if I found out one of my customers was being dishonest with the bank, I would consider issuing an account closure notice.

jonesMUFCforever · 27 March 2005 at 9:30PM

To add to Andy's post, you may find that the bank will debit the wrongly credited sums without warning if they have to to rectify matters. This may make your girlfriends account overdrawn without warning incurring hefty bank charges.
These charges will almost certainly be far greater than any interest earned in the ISA
Eric

Mystery Deposits!?

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