BACS Payment into the wrong account

ccarter_2

I hope somebody out there can help me as I am at the end of my tether - I recently made a peyment of £5500 to a supplier by internet bank transfer - unfortunaletly the account number was incorrect but this was not noticed until after the funds had cleared into someone elses bank account. The Bank can not give me any information about the person whos account was credited owing to the data protection act and advised me to write to the person (via the bank) requesting that they pay the money back. I have done this three times without a response - I then reported the matter to the police who at first gave me a crime number but then two weeks down the line backtracked and said that I could not prove that a crime has been committed - I do not know what to do next, I gather from the bank that this person has probably spent the monet but we are a small business and cannot afford to lose that sort of money - can any one advise me please

hilary1

A company I worked for once paid everyone twice. The bank couldnt claw it back and had to write to everyone. And they had to agree to return the money.

Hate to say it but this could be very hard to get back and you will probably have to lose it , or have you an insurance policy against this sort of thing?

jonesMUFCforever

I have to agree. If the bank made the error they would have to cough up.
You are going to have to find a way of getting the name and address of the person concerned and sue them.

clutton_2

is there a banking ombudsman you can contact ?

but first - have you fully read the terms and conditions of the contract for the banking service you were using ? i have a horrible feeling that it will be "buyer beware" and that you are fully responsible for the accuracy of the information which you input, but, do have a read.

Mrs_pbradley936

I just had a look at what I have to do with internet banking, I use Barclays.
I can either use the search (if it is a large firm or gov dept) OR I have to enter the name, sode code, account number, amount, and date to pay (if it is to be a regular payment I can say so and set up the frequentcy). I enter that info on one page then am asked to confirm all details on the next page. Finally I get a page showing all the info and asking me to make the payment.

About the only thing I can think of to argue over is that both the name and the account number do not tally and therefore it should have been rejected by the system. A bit like if you send an email to the wrong address - it gives you a sent message but a while later it comes back saying something like the name and address do not match any account details. Of course of you have been unlucky enough to pay a common name like "Smith" not sure what you could argue.

soolin

Unfortunately I think the OP is stuck. The name quoted is immaterial really, all that matters is the account number and sort code. The transfer sytems, assuming it was done online or by phone is computerised and done entirely by computer which relies totally on information input by the sender. I use a lot of bank transfers, and i know I still make manual payments to a relative in the wrong name which she gets happily and infact several banks don't even require a name to be input to make the transfer, just the account and sort code.

On the ebay board accepting money by bank transfer is considered extremely safe purely because there is no way at all the money can be withdrawn by the sender once it hits the recipient account. There is no way at all that you can legally track down the owner of the account you did send payment to, otherwise think how frighteneing it would be as anyone could transfer a £1 to an account and be entitled to get details of that account :eek:

I concur with some of the other suggestions about seeing if your insurance covers you.

Soo