Possible stolen cheque.

dogbiscuit_3

Hi all.
Not sure if I'm posting in the correct place.
An elderly friend of mine has received a letter today to say that his bank are unable to pay a cheque from his account due to insufficient funds.
The cheque number is one he hasn't yet reached in his cheque book but the relevant cheque is missing.
It looks like someone has taken a cheque from his book and tried to cash it.
Do you know if it is possible for his bank to tell him who it is made out to or send him a copy of the cheque.
I am unable to visit him today and will be seeing him first thing tomorrow when he will call the bank. He can't do it today as he has trouble using the phone without help.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Dobbibill

He needs to notify his bank that he thinks it's been stolen.
They will be able to put a stop on it.

Yes he can request a copy of the cheque from his bank.

HTH

badger09

Hope you manage to help your friend sort this one out.

It might be a good idea to establish who else has access to your friend's cheque book, and who might have done this.

Also, does he check his bank statements regularly? If not, help him check them in case this has happened previously, but for a smaller amount, so was successful.

Horrible situation for an elderly person, or anyone else, to be in.

xylophone

It should be possible to obtain a copy of the cheque from the bank - indeed, at one time, the cheque itself would have been "returned to drawer".

It is of course possible (unfortunately) that the cheque has been stolen and fraud attempted but the fact that your friend has not yet reached the cheque in his cheque book does not necessarily indicate this - he could have turned a couple of pages in a moment of absentmindedness?

jonesMUFCforever

It might be slightly difficult to get a copy of the cheque if it has been back 'refer to drawer' as it will have been sent back to the payee.
It will depend on how or if the bank the cheque was paid into photographs their work including cheques.

dogbiscuit_3

Thanks for all your replies.
He definitely hasn't wrote the cheque out himself. It's for £8000. Luckily he doesn't have this amount in that account so the cheque was not cashed by the bank.
There is a suspicion that it could be a family member. I do hope not. It will break his heart.
He will be phoning the bank first thing tomorrow when I get there to help him.
The bank have wrote to him today but I have not yet seen the letter.
Once again many thanks

DrSyn

I do hope that your friend looked all the way through the book, to make sure that no other cheques have been removed for later use. Also that the book is locked up or at least well hidden.

Ben8282

I would suggest going to the bank branch rather than phoning them if possible.
Make sure you thoroughly check the cheque book yourself to ensure no other cheques are missing.
Also make sure the bank understand that he did not write this cheque and make sure they do not charge him for the unpaid cheque or make an adverse entry on his credit files.

Westie983

I would suggest also cancelling the cheque book so if other cheques have also been removed, they will not be cashed either.
Does you relative need a cheque book? maybe worth canceling and not replacing so there is no repeat issue!, but if they do need cheques then order a book, (they have reduced the number of cheques in the books now, so that may help)

Im assuming there will not be a copy of the cheque in the system if it was not cashed by the bank, but they will have a audit trail of the cheque being paid in, hopefully you can get access to that.

You may also find that the cheque will be returned to payee, which will be whomever has written the cheque out.

I would also when you contact the bank make sure they dont charged for bounced cheques/returned cheques.

Hope it isn't a family member but it is quite common and I do deal with this issue regularly, sadly.

Good luck and keep us posted.

agrinnall

Westie983 wrote: »

You may also find that the cheque will be returned to payee, which will be whomever has written the cheque out.

Not really, the payee will be the person who the cheque was written to, which in most circumstances would be someone other than the person who wrote the cheque. Now in this case they may well be the same person, but it could also be that the fraudster wrote the cheque to someone else in an attempt to cover their tracks.

I would also expect that the bank that the cheque was paid into will have an image of it, although it may not be possible to obtain that without police involvement.

dogbiscuit_3

Thank you all for the replies.
Called the bank today. They have put a stop on the cheque to make sure it is not re presented. They have also said they will send him a copy of the cheque.
I have checked the rest of the book and no more are missing. The cheque that was missing was right at the end of the book behind the rest. Whoever took it has torn the stub out as well. I had to look very closely to see where it had been removed from.
I also checked his other cheque book for a different account.
He has yet to decide if he wants to report it to the police. I think he should but it will probably depend on what the cheque says.

Thanks again