Theft of Cheque

No1rams1986

Hi all - relatively inexperienced poster here, so I apologise in advance if I have lumped this thread in the wrong section, anyhow feedback is welcomed on the following situation........

In May of this year I raised a cheque for just over £1000.00 as payment for services carried out to my home following a recent move. I sent the cheque in the post via a third party whom the payee was an associate of, to be forwarded on to the relevant payee as I did not have their current address details, but the third party did (an established local business who have carried out excellent work for me in the past).

Anyway, I sent the cheque on its way (via regular mail) and thought nothing else of it. I had already budgeted for the debiting of the monies when reconciling my personal accounts (I have a list of unpresented cheques) and so did not pay much attention to the fact that the cheque remained uncashed for a number of weeks.

To bring the story forward, I received a phone call from my bank (Lloyds) last week asking me to verify the details of a cheque drawn on my account. The cheque in question was that described above, and it soon become apparent from the details I was being given that the cheque had been altered. I informed them that the payee was indeed different to the original and correct one and was duly informed that they would reject the cheque and log it as stolen.

Needless to say this was quite a surprise, I had up until that point forgotten about the cheque entirely and so was caught a little off guard to say the least. The lady from Lloyds briefly explained that the cheque would be returned unpaid, and that I would incur no charge for this given the nature of the situation. She also mentioned that collecting bank's fraud team would open an investigation into the transaction and that a copy of the cheque would be sent out to me, but my brain was that frazzled at the time I didn't push things much further.

So the gist of my posting is that I am seeking advice from anybody who has experienced a similar scenario to mine, and what the due process is? Given that the bank have told me that an investigation has been opened by them, I assume that I am not required to inform the police etc?? Do I need to do anymore or should I just await the banks response??

Many thanks

InsideInsurance

No you dont need to contact the police.

They will ask for a statement from you and ask you comment on the state of the cheque (namely the name change) in that statement.

Assuming you advise that the cheque isnt as you sent it then they'll liaise with the bank of the person that presented the cheque and confirm in principle what you have said to them. That bank will then decide what it wants to do with its customer that appears to be trying to commit fraud.

No1rams1986

Many thanks for the prompt response - much appreciated.

I shall await news from my bank on the situation.

Any idea how seriously this sort of thing is treated by banks generally - only it has naturally really hacked me and I'd like to hope the culprit will be suitably punished!

InsideInsurance

No1rams1986 wrote: »

Many thanks for the prompt response - much appreciated.

I shall await news from my bank on the situation.

Any idea how seriously this sort of thing is treated by banks generally - only it has naturally really hacked me and I'd like to hope the culprit will be suitably punished!

Ultimately you will almost certainly never hear what the end result is.

How was the original payee associated with the company you sent the cheque to? I do wonder if the cheque was miss placed in the office, found some time later with no associated letter and someone has corrected the payee thinking it was made to the associate in error or the association may be much stronger than you imagine.

The "fraudsters" bank will ultimately make the call on if they think this was the sole action of a rogue employee (assuming its a company) or it is a deliberate attempt to defraud. The former gets a wrist slap from the bank to the company where as the second is a closed account and CIFAS loading.

If they can identify the fraudster there is a slim chance it'll be passed to the police but if its a company and the company says they cant identify which employee changed the cheque or why then the police will almost certainly not be informed.

Reality is that the police are really not interested in one off small incidents of attempted frauds that were unsuccessful or the injured party have already been sorted. Certainly they arent for insurance fraud anyway.

dalesrider

Pretty common for cheques to disappear in the post..
Op. You should not have to anything.

Other than contact the company who you made the cheque out too....

Get their bank account details and send a faster payment.

No1rams1986

Unfortunately as I sent the cheque via regular mail I didn't acertain a signature on delivery, therefore I cannot say for sure whether or not it reached its destination or was intercepted either before it got there or after it was forwarded on. I guess those details would be of use to my bank.

In terms of the 3rd party the cheque was mailed to, yes it is indeed a company. From the details I was given during the phone call from my bank to verfify the authenticiy of the cheque, the name had been alterted to that of an individual rather than the company name as it had been made out by me originally.

jonesMUFCforever

Don't you think that was good service from your bank?

Don't forget the original bill will still be outstanding - perhaps getting their sort code and account number would be safer so that you can send the proceeds by internet banking.