HMRC cheque bank fraud?

gb12345

cheated? wrote: »

Financial Ombudsman deals with lost and stolen cheques. Please read previous topics and check Ombudsman website.

They might deal with complaints about lost and stolen cheques, but to my knowledge they do not offer a cheque tracing service - if you think different provide details of the page on their website that details this service.

At best they will get in touch with Barclays, who will tell them what they have told you - that they have no trace of the cheque being deposited.

BMN

cheated? wrote: »

You are lucky until Polish people will get into possession of them.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. I hope that I've misinterpreted what you're saying.

cheated? wrote: »

Financial Ombudsman deals with lost and stolen cheques. Please read previous topics and check Ombudsman website.

Check the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) website yourself and you will see that the service is for settling complaints between financial institutions and consumers. In order for the FOS to get involved you have to have made a complaint to a company first. Those are the rules.

cheated?

BMN wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. I hope that I've misinterpreted what you're saying.



Check the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) website yourself and you will see that the service is for settling complaints between financial institutions and consumers. In order for the FOS to get involved you have to have made a complaint to a company first. Those are the rules.

Ombudsman deals with my lost/stolen cheque already. And they sent a confirmation that they are doing this.

cheated?

A quote from Ombudsman website :
Can the ombudsman service help
in a dispute over a stolen cheque?
We can usually look at disputes where a
cheque belonging to a consumer – perhaps
a cheque that someone sent them but they
never received, or one they sent to someone
that never arrived – is stolen and paid by the
thief into a bank or building society account.
We can generally get involved in these
circumstances, even where the consumer is
not a customer of the bank or building
society where the stolen cheque was paid
in. To help us decide whether we think the
bank or building society was at fault, we
look into the circumstances in which the
thief opened the account and paid in the
stolen cheque.
what about disputes over ch

cheated?

imoneyop wrote: »

Which ombudsman have you contacted exactly? I think posters on here are assuming you are talking about the Financial Ombudsman, but they don't offer a service tracing lost cheques, they deal with complaints against regulated companies and as yet you don't have a complaint.

The only Ombudsman Services website I can find is this one and they don't have anything to do with the financial services industry or HMRC.

Quote from Ombudsman website:)
Can the ombudsman service help
in a dispute over a stolen cheque?
We can usually look at disputes where a
cheque belonging to a consumer – perhaps
a cheque that someone sent them but they
never received, or one they sent to someone
that never arrived – is stolen and paid by the
thief into a bank or building society account.
We can generally get involved in these
circumstances, even where the consumer is
not a customer of the bank or building
society where the stolen cheque was paid
in. To help us decide whether we think the
bank or building society was at fault, we
look into the circumstances in which the
thief opened the account and paid in the
stolen cheque.

pmduk

cheated? wrote: »

I have not complained about the bank but about lost or stolen cheque giving names and addresses of all the people suspected.

The ombudsman doesn't investigate where cheques have gone until they have been cashed. As you're refusing to find out, this complaint won't get anywhere fast. The HMRC are unlikely to give details of your cheque to a third party such as the ombudsman. To do so would be a breach of the Data Protection Act.
Even then thehe ombudsman will not investigate anyone other than the bank to see A: how they handled the process and B: investigate the bank that cleared the cheque..

The police won't yet investigate as there's absolutely no evidence of a crime until they know the cheque has been cleared and possibly not then.

First task on your list is to ascertain whether and how the cheque has been cleared. Precisely what you have been told throughout this thread. Ask the HMRC to confirm whether the cheque has been cleared.

gb12345

cheated? wrote: »

Can the ombudsman service help
in a dispute over a stolen cheque?
We can usually look at disputes where a
cheque belonging to a consumer – perhaps
a cheque that someone sent them but they
never received, or one they sent to someone
that never arrived – is stolen and paid by the
thief into a bank or building society account.

But as yet you don't know that the cheque has been stolen, so how can you have a dispute over it?

cheated?

Thank you all for the professional advice.

Skint_yet_Again

cheated? wrote: »

Quote from Ombudsman website:)
Can the ombudsman service help
in a dispute over a stolen cheque?
We can usually look at disputes where a
cheque belonging to a consumer – perhaps
a cheque that someone sent them but they
never received, or one they sent to someone
that never arrived – is stolen and paid by the
thief into a bank or building society account.
We can generally get involved in these
circumstances, even where the consumer is
not a customer of the bank or building
society where the stolen cheque was paid
in. To help us decide whether we think the
bank or building society was at fault, we
look into the circumstances in which the
thief opened the account and paid in the
stolen cheque.

But you don't know if this is the case... you don't know if the lost/stolen cheque has been cashed.

When you phoned HMRC the first thing they would do is advise you to check with your bank/building society because the bank/building soc may have been able to trace the cheque. This would prevent HMRC having to start the process to see if the cheque had been cashed and would be in your favour at it takes approx. 6 weeks to get a replacement if it has not been cashed.

You need to phone HMRC and tell them the cheque is missing and not in your account and you have checked with the bank/building society. They can then start the process to find out if it has been cashed. They will contact their finance department who will investigate, If it has been cashed they will tell you which account etc. If it has not been cashed they will send you a replacement. The only time you would need to write to HMRC is if you failed the security questions at the start of the call

pmduk

cheated? wrote: »

A quote from Ombudsman website :
Can the ombudsman service help
in a dispute over a stolen cheque?
We can usually look at disputes where a
cheque belonging to a consumer – perhaps
a cheque that someone sent them but they
never received, or one they sent to someone
that never arrived – is stolen and paid by the
thief into a bank or building society account.
We can generally get involved in these
circumstances, even where the consumer is
not a customer of the bank or building
society where the stolen cheque was paid
in. To help us decide whether we think the
bank or building society was at fault, we
look into the circumstances in which the
thief opened the account and paid in the
stolen cheque.
what about disputes over ch

But your cheque was received and you gave it to a "trustworthy" friend. Until you know the cheque has been cleared it is simply a lost cheque and HMRC should be asked to reissue it.