Tracing an old cheque that we may not have had

jackyann

Agrinnall - when I tried that, I was told that only related to transactions in the last 6 years.
Am only speaking from personal experience, so I'm sure OP should try, but I got the impression they already had, and had a similar response to mine.
I was fortunate, in that, although I was being chased for a great deal of money that I had actually paid, I hadn't lost any; as OP appears to have done.

nessy39

Agrinall - yes HSBC is the bank that we would have deposited the cheque with. The staff member filled a form in requestingt bank statements referring to June and July 2005 and they could only send a duplicate of the July one.

Can't believe I have hit a dead end with both HSBC and Barclays for a transaction almost 7 years old. Lots of Google searches have shown people with success for many years prior to this. What about when police and solicitors need evidence for things? Surely they are not told that everything is binned after 6 years?

jackyann

nessy: I would check with someone like CAB or a Law Centre; also see alanq's advice on approaching from a different angle.
I was told that although the information is retrievable (eg for criminal evidence) they normally require a sub poena.

I don't want you to take as reliable the information I was given a few years ago; you should check it for yourself. My sharing was in the spirit of "been there" sympathy - as I too had always assumed any cheque could be traced for a reasonable fee. I keep my own bank records for 2 years - which had seemed reasonable to me up until that point!

nessy39

Thanks Jackyann. I remember when HSBC used to offer to put £5 in your bank account if you stopped receiving paper statements in the post. I did stop them a couple of years ago, but with all this hassle I am now keeping EVERYTHING FOREVER that's financial!!

Rung Ombudsman Service and they advised to fill in an SAR form (£10 charge) which means they have to send me everything they have on file, but not sure this will go back far enough to cover June 2005.

agrinnall

jackyann wrote: »

I was told that although the information is retrievable (eg for criminal evidence) they normally require a sub poena.

That would only be the case if the information doesn't belong to the person making the request; as nessy is asking for information about his/her own account then a SAR is all that's required.

nessy39 wrote: »

Rung Ombudsman Service and they advised to fill in an SAR form (£10 charge) which means they have to send me everything they have on file, but not sure this will go back far enough to cover June 2005.

Yes, that is the right approach to take, you can read more about the SAR here http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/personal_information/how_manage/access_info.aspx

Despite jackyann's experience it's my belief that HSBC will in fact have data going back far enough, I worked in IT in banks for 15 years and although I wasn't involved with data going back quite that far I'm pretty sure it was there somewhere. It may not be in an easily accessible format, which could be why they couldn't give you the June 2005 statement (although I'm slightly surprised they were able to send July but not June). The information they will provide you is unlikely to be as easy to read as a statement but it should let you see if a £1500 cheque was deposited.

nessy39

That's a hopeful answer, Agrinnall! I'm going to apply. Happy to spend a tenner, and happy to look a fool if it was in fact deposited into my account! At least I could have some rest from this matter as it really is eating away at me x

jonesMUFCforever

OP have you considered that the statute of limitation would apply even if you found that the cheque had been paid into somebody else's account?
What more could you do?

nessy39

Do you mean we wouldn't be able to get the money back if it was shown that the cheque had in fact been made payable to someone else?

jonesMUFCforever

nessy39 wrote: »

Do you mean we wouldn't be able to get the money back if it was shown that the cheque had in fact been made payable to someone else?

Yes that is precisely what I am saying.
Often we get posts on these boards along the lines of can I keep any unknown credits paid into my account - the answer is always no until six years and one day have passed.
In your case this would have been sometime in 2011.

nessy39

Heck! Well, I am going to fill in an SAR form this week and I will post the results on here. Like I said earlier, if I did get the cheque - all well and good and spent (!). If not, then I shall appeal to whoever I need to (bearing in mind the cheque is from a wound-up pension scheme) and see if they will reimburse me. If it gets awkward, then I shall use my legal cover on my house insurance (which has proved invaluable on two previous occasions) and make sure I can get my £1500 back!