Mystery Cheque Received

hayley11

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Knowing it was not for you, and from someone you had never heard of, why did you pay it in?

If you read back, the bank told him to pay it in.

Stavros_3

Hi, he's my tuppence worth. If you know its not yours DON'T spend it. Contact the banking authority, you could end up getting your collar felt, here's why:-

Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit
(1) After section 24 of the Theft Act 1968 insert—
“24A Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit

(1) 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.
(2) References to a credit are to a credit of an amount of money.
(3) A credit to an account is wrongful if it is the credit side of a money transfer obtained contrary to section 15A of this Act.

Brooker_Dave

hayley11 wrote: »

If you read back, the bank told him to pay it in.

Why would they do that?

Caroline73_2

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Why would they do that?

because it's £4k they now have, the OP only has £4k if they choose to withdraw the money.

tyllwyd

But if you look at 15A of the Theft Act
"15A Obtaining a money transfer by deception
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if by any deception he dishonestly obtains a money transfer for himself or another"

In this case, the OP hasn't deceived anyone - he received a cheque in his name, in an envelope addressed to him at his home address. I agree he should be very careful that it isn't seen as theft, but it is a bit different from a BACS transfer where the difference might be a typing error in an account number.

Another thing to try is writing a letter to HSBC enclosing a letter to be forwarded to the account holder. If he keeps copies of those, it would show that he made reasonable efforts to alert the person who wrote the cheque.

toniq

You could do an electoral role trace for the person the money is from as u have an area where the bank is so that could be a start, even 192.com could get u going in the right direction.
Maybe a family member has passed on? a friend of parents etc?
Unlikley for someone to have your name and address correct and make an error with that sum of monies.

willo65

pop it in a savings account for a few months and see if anything happens....

worried_jim

Stavros wrote: »

Hi, he's my tuppence worth. If you know its not yours DON'T spend it. Contact the banking authority, you could end up getting your collar felt, here's why:-

Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit
(1) After section 24 of the Theft Act 1968 insert—
“24A Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit

(1) 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.
(2) References to a credit are to a credit of an amount of money.
(3) A credit to an account is wrongful if it is the credit side of a money transfer obtained contrary to section 15A of this Act.

Keep the money in a separate savings account. when the rightful owner traces you you can pay back the funds. If you spent the money or refused to pay it back only then could you be accused of “24A Dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit"
Infact so far you have done everything possible to make sure the funds go to the correct person. + you'll have that little bit of interest earned aswell, which you can keep.
As the letter was addressed to you and the chq had your name on it you have done nothing wrong.

libra10

Is it possibly a competition win? Prizes occasionally arrive with no details of where they have been sent from.

Good luck

logie28

Take the advice of the government..

SPEND!!, SPEND!!, SPEND!!

If it all goes wrong blame PM Brown!!!