Fake £20 note !! Given to me by the post office !!

samutiana

I work in retail and the procedure is to retain the £20 (presumably to stop it being circulated elsewhere) and at the end of the night bank it separately. It then gets tested at the banking centre (in our case a NatWest) where our money is usually deposited. If it's come up fake when tested with a UV pen then we don't hear anything back because it's the best test and it will be fake.

In three years I've never had a fake note come back as "not fake", although it has happened once at another store where they didn't use a pen and went on feel/look. If they've used a UV pen there's no point in taking details because it will be fake.

I empathise - I once had my expenses (at another job) paid to me out of petty cash and when I went to the bank to deposit I was pretty much treated like a criminal because one £20 was fake They gave me a receipt and said I'd hear back. I heard nothing. The cashier also interrogated me quite aggressively and gave me many an evil look, even though I was close to tears because it was all I had to live on for the next two weeks!

vax2002

They took it away to be tested ?
How do you know they brought back the same one ?

Nice Scam, do that half a dozen times a day and you have just doubled your wage...

vax2002

crazyguy wrote: »

I puposely check notes given to me from banks and post offices just to annoy them Its amazing how much they dislike it.

fake money gets in to circulation in change... Think about it ..
nice earner if you work on a till

chuckley

i was a 'witness' when my manager did the company's banking @ the post office and NOT ONCE was any of the money checked! From then I never trusted any post office change.

Ive caught a few in my time, once when working in a bar I caught a girl paying with fake £20's. the police came and all of her £300 was fake. The police dropped the case after 'not enough evidence'. HIGHlarious... but the funniest was when i worked at MCD's and I got a fake £50. my manager took it, wrote in black marker 'FAKE' on both sides and gave it back to him and walked off. The boys face was priceless. He was in utter shock.

Shevchenko01

Only Police and certain other public bodies, have the authority to confiscate property that they believe to be illegal, counterfeit or those that come under certain other groups. The reason that they are able to do that is they are given various “powers of seizure”. This is important...powers of seizure granted under statute.
A shop keeper/till operator has no such powers – no more than any other member of the public. That said, there are some powers under common-law that they could exercise which would effectively mean arresting the person presenting the note.

bell123321

In every retail shop I have worked at we have been told to retain notes if they are belived to be fake (using the pen). However we are also told to take the details of the customers in case it does come back as not being fake. As a customer I once got given a fake in a pub (£5) then went back to order more drinks and pay with the £5 they gave me, the cashier (who originally gave it to me) was going to accept it but her manager walked over and said it was a fake and would not accept it. It was the only £5 I had on me so I was pretty annoyed as I knew it was from them originally, and it annoyed me even more that the cashier who gave it to me would have originally taken it back. Wish they checked all their notes prior but these things happen sometimes

shaun_from_Africa

Shevchenko01 wrote: »

Only Police and certain other public bodies, have the authority to confiscate property that they believe to be illegal, A shop keeper/till operator has no such powers – no more than any other member of the public. That said, there are some powers under common-law that they could exercise which would effectively mean arresting the person presenting the note.

Incorrect.
If anyone, be it a shopper or shop worker has a note that they believe is counterfeit then they are acting illegally if they pass it back to the person who gave it to them.
All they can legally do with the note is to give it to the police.
This is covered by the Forgery and Counterfeiting act 1981

Provided that the shopper was not aware of the note being fake then they haven't done anything wrong, but once the shopworker becomes aware of the note they can't give it back.

(1)It is an offence for a person—
(a)to pass or tender as genuine any thing which is, and which he knows or believes to be, a counterfeit of a currency note or of a protected coin; or

(b)to deliver to another any thing which is, and which he knows or believes to be, such a counterfeit, intending that the person to whom it is delivered or another shall pass or tender it as genuine.

(2)It is an offence for a person to deliver to another, without lawful authority or excuse, any thing which is, and which he knows or believes to be, a counterfeit of a currency note or of a protected coin.

Shevchenko01

bell123321, I know so many shops that have that policy...doesn't make it right or legal though.

Simple question is: Where do your powers garanting seizure come from? There are no legal powers allowing this...lots of anecdote but no "Under Section X of the Seizure of Goods Act, 199Y, any person having reasonable grounds to believe that a counterfeit banknote is tendered to them in payment of goods or services may seize the banknote, giving...", etc, etc.

This is where powers to carry out any action stem from that affect other people's property. A shop-keeper is not qualified to determine that a banknote is fake but can suspect it is and refuse it.

Shevchenko01

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Incorrect.
If anyone, be it a shopper or shop worker has a note that they believe is counterfeit then they are acting illegally if they pass it back to the person who gave it to them.
All they can legally do with the note is to give it to the police.
This is covered by the Forgery and Counterfeiting act 1981

Provided that the shopper was not aware of the note being fake then they haven't done anything wrong, but once the shopworker becomes aware of the note they can't give it back.

I don't agree...

For them to do that they:

1. Have to have accepted it in the first instance which they have not but have refused it as they will still ask for money to pay for the goods/services, and therefor is not theirs to pass/tender, and
2. Know or believe that it’s fake, and they are not qualified to know that...they can suspect but not know or even, in my honest opinion, have suffiecient grounds to believe as virtually no counter forgery system on the high street is 100% accurate and they often give false positives which lead to real notes being identified as fakes.

Also, if returning said note to shopper, the shop-keeper is not passing it "as genuine" (1a), no real grounds to believe that the shopper "shall pass or tender it as genuine" (1b) or, if he does, should call the Police straight away and have the shopper detained. Finally, I believe the shop-keeper does have "lawful authority or excuse" (2) as he is returning it to the owner.

meer53

If you have a fake note, send it to your bank with a covering letter, they should credit your account with the value. The notes are then sent to the Bank of England with a claim form, the bank gets their money back and the note is destroyed.