Cheque paid into wrongly named account

Dave2112

Hi all

I seem to have started a lively discussion here. Sorry for taking a while to respond but rather than answer everyone individually I'll try and simplify things with regard to the two cheques.

Cheque 1 never made it to the intended recipient but was paid in and cashed by someone else before I could cancel it.

I therefore had to write out cheque 2 as I had not paid for the services provided.

This means I had paid out twice - cheque 1 to an unknown, cheque 2 to the correct person.

Cheque 1 is part of a fraud investigation with the police - and for those wanting a blow by blow account I've spent four hours with the Police trying to unravel multiple company names, contractors and different personell so I'm not attempting to outline it here.

The Police advised me to get my money back for cheque 1 anyway I could so I went down the technicality route as I did not have any names or addresses to follow up.

The BS originally told me the "paid into account" name was different to the name on cheque 1 so I asked for it to be reversed. They then said that the names were the same and it couldn't be reversed.

I knew this wasn't correct so asked in this thread for help in finding the relevant legislation.

I have since wrote to the BS with a copy of cheque 1, 1992 legislation and some other info.

This morning the BS have admitted they were wrong and cheque 1 has been reversed with the funds back into my account - the "paid into account" name was different to the name on the cheque.

So I'm happy with the financial outcome.

Hope that clears up the situation with regard to the need to refund cheque 1 and maybe lays to rest some of the theories that have been put forward as to why I wanted to do this.

JanCee

As I am full of wine and feeling quite chippy I will just refer you to my post #7. No matter what people think about using common sense in the case of spelling mistakes in these instances the Bank haven't got a leg to stand on and will always have to refund.

M_Thomson

amandathepanda wrote:

I'm confused, something doesn't quite add up here. As a Bank cashier myself,if a cheque was made out to N Lester and was for the account N Leicester we would accept it and presume it was just a spelling error. There can't be many people with the name of N Leicester/Lester.
We wouldn't accept a cheque which was made out to T lester/Leicester or any other surname, but as the surname sounds exactly the same we would show a bit of common sense and accept it. We get cheques paid in all the time with spelling mistakes, and if we sent customers away and refused to accept them they wouldn't be happy.

So if N Lester won £100,000 on the lottery and a N Leicester who is a totally different person somehow managed to get hold of the cheque and wanted to pay it in you would accept it? I know the specific example I have given is unlikeley to happen but I find it a bit worrying that do what you mentioned above this especially with larger amounts.

amandathepanda

M_Thomson wrote:

So if N Lester won £100,000 on the lottery and a N Leicester who is a totally different person somehow managed to get hold of the cheque and wanted to pay it in you would accept it? I know the specific example I have given is unlikeley to happen but I find it a bit worrying that do what you mentioned above this especially with larger amounts.

If it was for £100,000 there is no way I would accept it,it is all about using a bit of common sense. A couple of hundred quid maybe, you have to decide whether you want to risk upsetting the customer by not accepting a cheque with a spelling error. The chances of having a cheque made out to N Lester being paid in to an account in the name of N Leicester must be millions to one.