Abbey Did a Money Transfer Without My Authorisation

tez_mike

Hi there

Abbey have taken money out of my savings account without my permission.

The full story:

At the back end of last year I noticed the odd £20 appearing in my account here and there so I spoke to my local branch who were unable to help so I went to the FSA who said I was being too honest(?), my final act was to contact the Abbey by letter to the MD in December last year but I did not get a reply!

Fast forward to today and I go into my branch and when the teller hands me back my savings book I see there has been a funds transfer out of my account of £140, surely no coincidence that this is how much has been paid into my account in £20 denominations in the past 9 months. Being a local branch they bent over backwards to help and were on the phone for over an hour looking into this however all they kept doing was hitting a brick wall. They finally found out that a lady teller in Leeds had done the transfer however they were unable to give details over the phone and I would have to come to the branch to discuss it. I have never been to Leeds in my life, nor do I intend to, its a bit of a trek from Nottingham!

Now as I said before, I am 99% sure that I am not entitled to this money anyway but what concerns me is that some random teller in Leeds has probably realised she has made a mistake and instead of going through the proper channels has just removed money from my account without my authorisation or even notifying me, surely this is fraud? The manager at my local bank seems to think so.

Now the exaggerator in me has come up with a wild reason for this happening, what if this is money laundering on a small scale and the teller is in on it? Just think if they did this to 100 people that's £14,000 in their pockets and if they realise they can just transfer money out of my account at will what's to stop them doing it and taking not just theirs but my money too?

I'll say again, surely i should have been notified if this was a genuine error and received an apology, what if I hadn't realised that money wasn't mine and I'd already spent it?

Am I entitled to compensation for this?

Thanks

Terri

dunstonh

Now as I said before, I am 99% sure that I am not entitled to this money anyway

You are not as you knew it was not yours.

but what concerns me is that some random teller in Leeds has probably realised she has made a mistake and instead of going through the proper channels has just removed money from my account without my authorisation or even notifying me, surely this is fraud?

Correction of an error is not fraud. It is poor administration and a telling off offence but its not fraud as it was returning the money to its rightful owner.

Now the exaggerator in me has come up with a wild reason for this happening, what if this is money laundering on a small scale and the teller is in on it?

Money laundering transactions do often start with small amounts. However, its more likely a sort code or account number reversal or one digit different being written a few times.

Just think if they did this to 100 people that's £14,000 in their pockets and if they realise they can just transfer money out of my account at will what's to stop them doing it and taking not just theirs but my money too?

Whats the point about thinking like that? You could list thousands of what ifs if you really wanted to.

I'll say again, surely i should have been notified if this was a genuine error and received an apology

You should have been notified or the error and confirmation that a correction would like to take place.

what if I hadn't realised that money wasn't mine and I'd already spent it?

Unless you could prove you had grounds for believing it was your money, you would have to pay it back.

The FOS publications have a range of outcomes on this, as does law.

Am I entitled to compensation for this?

Have you lost a leg? Are you unable to work?

If you put in a formal complaint about they way it was handled then you may get £25 or so for the inconvenience but you are not "entitled" to anything. It will be a goodwill gesture.

anamenottaken

dunstonh wrote: »

If you put in a formal complaint about they way it was handled then you may get £25 or so for the inconvenience but you are not "entitled" to anything. It will be a goodwill gesture.

And in fact, because it was paid into a Savings account, you may gain the interest on that money that was not yours for the length of time that it was in your account.

scott_lithgows

Perhaps you should withdraw the rest of your cash if thats how you feel,otherwise you have no chance.

Andystriker

As a regular reader of this board I am always confused by this subject.

Now I know that the OP has no claim on the money, and quite rightly as this is an error the money should be repaid.

However if I was to post on this forum and say that I have been paying £20 per month in for the last 9 months and I only now realize that I have been paying this money into the wrong account - what would the response be?

"You will have to hope that the person whose account you have paid the money into will let you have the money back or you will have to take them to court, if you can find out who they are".

That is what I understood to be the case.



So how then can the OP's account be debited without him agreeing to the money being paid back?

So which is it? Does the OP have to agree to giving the money back or not? And if he does why did his bank not ask him?

I'm confused

dunstonh

So how then can the OP's account be debited without him agreeing to the money being paid back?

Same bank rather than different banks. If it was different banks then it would be a nightmare and the bank couldnt auto-correct. As its the same bank and they hold the debit and credit and audit trail so they can correct it internally. However, they should still communicate the actions to the account holder and verify acceptance of this.

tez_mike

Thank you for your replies.

I stated I wasn't entitled to the money yet one of the replies twisted it and with regards to the comment about compensation, no I didn't loose a leg and I am not unable to work, however, I spent many hours stressing over the credit going into my account and I am still stressing over the new situation that has arisen. I also spent a lot of time trying to sort out the credits and part of my afternoon trying to sort out yesterdays fiasco.

I am not a money grabber but I am at least entitled to a formal apology!

Thank you

Tez

joegib

Don't most bank/BS T & C's have a clause along the lines that where a depositor incurs a debt to the bank, the bank reserves the right to recover the debt from the depositor's funds? The overpayment into the the depositor's account represents a debt to the bank because the former is not legally entitled to this money.

Apart from that, this situation is covered by a general principle in law governing "mutual indebtedness" — see here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lDKVG9ndIeAC&pg=PA360&lpg=PA360&dq=mutual+indebtedness&source=bl&ots=eDNuNddNCH&sig=KXy0Yoy9epEoTQhT77xY0tORflY&hl=en&ei=qSLhS_7lIpf20gT9gMmaCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&
ved=0CAsQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=mutual%20indebtedness&f=false

Joe

RayWolfe

tez_mike wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.

I spent many hours stressing over the credit going into my account and I am still stressing over the new situation that has arisen

By golly it doesn't take much does it?
A minor inconvenience does not equal stress.
Get over it and hope you never have any real stress in your life.