Too many know-it-alls on here who know very little.

jonnyd281

Isn't it a criminal offence to write a cheque knowing that you don't have the funds available? Obtaining money or goods by deception? (Question not a statement of fact).

ImBlonde

jonnyd281 wrote: »

Isn't it a criminal offence to write a cheque knowing that you don't have the funds available? Obtaining money or goods by deception? (Question not a statement of fact).

Yes. It can be classed as illegal

hippey

Cheques act 1957 covers some points as does the 1992 version.

Always difficult to prove fraud on just writing your own cheques and going overdrawn, I think you would really need a bit more but then case law is a bit thin on the fraud act anyway

Joe_Bloggs

I wrote a cheque for £20,000 and gave it to my solicitor. I said don't try to pay it in now because the money is in the BACS system on the way to the account. Did I act fraudulently ?
J_B.

ImBlonde

It's not fraudulent, (previous post edited -silly me) but it is illegal.

You are knowingly handing someone cash that is not effectively in your account - yet! Even though it is on the way, how can you guarantee there won't be a problem, or the payment isn't going to be returned for any number of reasons? I would have waited for the money to credit and only then would I have given them the cheque.

Joe_Bloggs

My solicitor did not think it was illegal and funds were transferred on time.
My experience relates to a situation where I handed over the second of two cheques for a house deposit. The first cheque was entirely backed by funds. The second was post dated, and the funds were on their way.
J_B.

woody01

KJ2009 wrote: »

I recently asked a question about Guaranteed cheques because I was considering writing one (for £100) knowing that my funds cannot cover it when it clears. However, within 24 hours of that forced cheque a payment of £700 goes in my account. So basically it's naughty, but my bank nearly collapsed in September 2008 due to incompetent business practices. (I'm with the Halifax)

Anyway some know it all (who obviously spends an unhealthy amount of time here) basically staed that my chequebook, and guarantee card would be withdrawn by my bank for card misuse. That is not the case at all, because I rung them about it. If you cashed many cheques with no supporting funds then the alarm would certainly be raised at the bank, but one or two going through, when a regular income is paid into the account all you get is the extra charges for unauthorized overdraft.

When you have a query, you should endeavour to get the answer direct from the source of the query, not necessarily forums like this.

Don't use it then.

ImBlonde

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

My solicitor did not think it was illegal and funds were transferred on time.
My experience relates to a situation where I handed over the second of two cheques for a house deposit. The first cheque was entirely backed by funds. The second was post dated, and the funds were on their way.
J_B.

But this one wasn't entirely backed by funds, because they weren't there available. And if the funds hadn't been transferred on time and were a day or two later or there had been a problem and the cheque had been cashed without the funds being available:

A) You would have gone overdrawn/over nil by x amount of money as the cheque was running through the account and being returned by cause of insufficient funds.

You'd most likely be getting charged for it.

C) Solicitor would have to wait for the cheque to be returned for further processing (unless you write a second one)

D) Possible delay in house purchase.

E) Possible complaint to the bank/building society for a problem/delay in money transfer when actually, you knew that might be a possibility

F) As before, it's illegal if you knowingly know the money is not available in your account.

Just don't get caught out with it, it might bite you in the bottom one day!

Mikeyorks

ImBlonde wrote: »

It's not fraudulent, (previous post edited -silly me) but it is illegal.
.

It's neither fraudulent nor illegal.

There are tens of thousands of businesses in the UK and where they have Accountants who calculate their annual SA tax liability. The businesses then provide the Accountant with a cheque denoted to HMRC. Those cheques are written in Sept / Oct / Nov / Dec and early to mid Jan each year ....... but not submitted to HMRC until a pre-agreed date (with the client) a couple of days in advance of the major due date 31st January.

In all cases ..... the funds to meet those cheques, and ranging from a few £hundred to a few £million, will not be put into the business account until the cheques leave the Accountants. And there are permutations on that theme occuring every day.

It's not illegal (a much abused word on these forums) - it's just a sensible expedient ...... and :-

You are knowingly handing someone cash

........... a cheque is a 'promise to pay' - it doesn't pretend to be cash.

ImBlonde

Mikeyorks wrote: »

It's neither fraudulent nor illegal.

There are tens of thousands of businesses in the UK and where they have Accountants who calculate their annual SA tax liability. The businesses then provide the Accountant with a cheque denoted to HMRC. Those cheques are written in Sept / Oct / Nov / Dec and early to mid Jan each year ....... but not submitted to HMRC until a pre-agreed date (with the client) a couple of days in advance of the major due date 31st January.

In all cases ..... the funds to meet those cheques, and ranging from a few £hundred to a few £million, will not be put into the business account until the cheques leave the Accountants. And there are permutations on that theme occuring every day.

It's not illegal (a much abused word on these forums) - it's just a sensible expedient ...... and :-



........... a cheque is a 'promise to pay' - it doesn't pretend to be cash.

They are businesses, not people purchasing houses or paying for 'goods' as it were via a cheque. Writing a cheque knowing that money is not available in your account is considered a criminal offence. And Im sure those writing cheques for businesses will ensure there are funds available and clear in the account in due course before the cheque is due to be cashed - largely before it leaves the accountants.

Its a piece of paper with a value on it, with the intention of it being guaranteed funds. But as I say, the funds were in no way guaranteed in this case as they weren't there, and weren't definitely going to be there when the cheque was due for processing.