get access to someones account

wazza

friend's son has been arrested and is held in prison awaiting trial in december. He needs money to settle bills etc. can my friend withdraw money from his halifax account. she has his bank book. if there was a debit card present then it would have not been a problem.

she had a chat with halifax but they said no.

can someone assist her?

thanks

Bossyboots

She needs to ask the Halifax whether she would be able to draw on the account if her son issues a letter of authority for her to do so. If they will,then that is what he needs to do. If not, then I wonder whether he would be better off closing the account and having the proceeds paid by cheque to his mum.

The other alternative is whether Halifax will write a cheque to the companies whose bills need paying. If they make the cheque out to the payee with the son's account number in the payee box, it cannot be used by anyone else to pay any other bill. The bill of course would need to be in the son's name.

Darryl

Don't they have phones in prisons? Why can't the son call Halifax and sort this out himself? i.e. phone them and ask for the money to be transferred to his mum's account, so that she can pay the bills.

I can't see how having her son's debit card would have made a difference. Hope she wasn't going to try and forge his signature.

Darryl.

Bossyboots

With a debit card and the PIN she could have withdrawn money and paid the bills.

Prison 'phones are not exactly in discreet locations and I don't think it is the ideal place to be giving your security details to the person on the other end. Prisoners also get a limited amount of credit and opportunity to call, even on remand.

Darryl

Bossyboots wrote:

With a debit card and the PIN she could have withdrawn money and paid the bills.

Withdrawn the cash from her son's account? Goes against the T&C's of his bank account won't it?

Fair enough, I've never been to prison to know what phone calling is like. But, then whenever I've phoned a bank I've never had to give full security details. They only ever ask for things like 1st and 3rd letters of your password, etc; so that even if you are overheard the person hearing you can't determine all your security details.

Maybe there's a better way? Perhaps someone who knows about prisoner rights, etc might be able to provide a more proven answer.

Darryl.

Bossyboots

Of course it would go against the T&Cs of the account but it would solve the immediate problem if they wanted to take the risk.

As for the prison, while it is true that on each occasion they would only have to give part of the security details, just making that call will set them up as a target once it becomes known they can access their bank account over the telephone. That is one piece of information sensible prisoners keep to themselves. Also, if they wanted to transfer money to the mum's account, those details would have to be given by telephone and that would put that account at risk.

The only other slim possibility is to speak to the prison welfare officer (each wing should have one) and explain that bills are not going to be paid and see whether they will allow a private telephone call. This may be allowed once. It might be worth using that call to transfer the money to his mum's account.

lush_walrus

I guess it will also depend on whether the crime committed by your friends son (or has been accused of) was involving stollen goods, drugs or money in any way as generally if the proceeds of a crime are linked to assets then all accounts are frozen. If not then I would go for the cash point option worth a try if yr friend is desperate for the money.

Quasar

He will probably have to issue a letter of authority, but surely this chap is represented by a solicitor somewhere along the line? His case can't be unique and I am sure the solicitor or even the prison governor can give him advice which takes a couple of minutes.

wazza

thanks for the replies. he has given permission for his mum to withdraw money from the account. he was out with his mate. his mate had a fight with someone. that person said my friend's son was involved. nothing to do with drugs, stolen goods etc which implies seizure/hold of his bank account.

i will push her to ask solicitor to write a notary letter or something giving her access to the account

System

wazza wrote:

thanks for the replies. he has given permission for his mum to withdraw money from the account.

This is good but please urge your friend to go down propper chanels to reach this outcome, such as using the welfare officer and his own solicitor who is working in the best interest of his client.

i will push her to ask solicitor to write a notary letter or something giving her access to the account

Also something else to consider, she may have verbal permission from her son, but she will need a more than that when she tackles the bank. She could also contact his creditors, and explain the situation and explain she is working to solve things. I hope things work out well for your friend and her son.

Bossyboots

Judi wrote:

This is good but please urge your friend to go down propper chanels to reach this outcome, such as using the welfare officer and his own solicitor who is working in the best interest of his client.

The solicitor will be employed under the legal aid scheme which does not cover them for getting involved in these issues. They only have to work in the best interests of their client in relation to the charges faced but most will write a letter or two about something else to help out. They are however not obliged to as this is work for which they will not get paid.