Suspended bank account - old fraud - need a mortgage - advice now needed!

chica0208

Hi,


I am posting on behalf of a friend, as I have searched everywhere and can't find an answer to her query! Let's just say she used to be a 'wild child' as a teenager - and she once tampered with a cheque which wasn't for her, paid it into her bank account (successfully) and withdrew all the money. The bank then suspended her account and queried it, understandably, and she just dropped off the radar and ignored their correspondence.


Since then (approx. 15 years ago) she has been to prison, come out, totally sorted her life out, and is now working and hoping to buy a house soon. Her credit report is "fair" but ideally it would be good or excellent, to get a mortgage. I have taken a look at it and one of the things that stands out, is that this old bank account is still showing up as 'suspended', but ultimately it's still there. There was a small amount of money still in it at the time (about £100) so presumably they have just frozen the account, but not actually closed it down. I know that having entirely inactive accounts on your credit report doesn't look great; however, she is worried that if she tries to contact them now to get the account properly closed, they might try to open a case against her, for fraud, or try to recover the money from the tampered cheque, or something else. Basically, she doesn't want to open a can of worms from her past life when she has worked so hard since to turn her life around and get on the straight and narrow!


I totally get that, ultimately, she made a mistake in the past, so don't need comments suggesting she face up to her actions - trust me, she has had years of doing that. If anybody can offer any suggestions, advice or knowledge on the best way to proceed here, it would be much appreciated. I wasn't sure if a suspended account would eventually disappear from a credit report, but it looks like, since it was just suspended rather than actually closed, that is not the case?


Thank you in advance! :-)

Brock_and_Roll

It think it would be worthwhile to see if there is a CIFAS marker against her.


This is a database of confirmed fraud cases that is shared between banks - they have been going 25 years to a marker is a possibility.


Your friend can make a subject access request (£10) to obtain any information held.

chica0208

Thank you, this is useful info, I didn't know about CIFAS. I've just checked their list of members and Santander is on there - the account was with Abbey but they were bought out, weren't they, so presumably any info they held on her should be on here?


Would this only apply if it was a 'confirmed' case of fraud, e.g. they never proved anything (that I know of) so at worst it would probably be an 'ongoing investigation' or something like that - do you think that info would still be included on a CIFAS subject access report? And presumably, if the report came back and said 'no information held' then do you think she would be safe to contact Santander to get the account officially closed?


I've not come across this sort of thing before so don't really know where to look to find the right answers!


Thanks in advance :-)

Candyapple

What does a 'suspended' bank account look like on a credit report - can you take a screenshot? (edit out any personal info)

Has your friend checked Noddle, ClearScore and MSE Credit Club for her free credit reports from all 3 CRAs (Call Credit, Equifax and Experian)?

How much money was involved with the tampered cheque? Are we talking hundreds or thousands?

Has she managed to get a bank account elsewhere since then?

Does she have any credit cards/loans etc?

rtho782

CIFAS are not even the only ones. Synectics Solutions, National Hunter, etc.

The only way to really know is to apply and see.

GingerBob_3

rtho782 wrote: »

CIFAS are not even the only ones. Synectics Solutions, National Hunter, etc.

The only way to really know is to apply and see.

These big brother databases are only allowed to keep records for a specific time - 5 or 6 years, I think.


Worryingly, these same databases can record 'suspicions' about fraud, and disseminate such potentially 'fake news' to all and sundry (they need proper regulation).


It's a bit of a tricky one, is this. One point that comes to mind - the OP's friend was, I assume, under the age of 18 when the alleged offence occurred. There may be some mileage in this - can you require records to be deleted from these databases, including the CRA databases, for minors?

MrsTinks

Would limitations act not prevent her from being prosecuted for the fraud if it's as old as 15 years?

Not certain about CIFAS markers but I think they only sit for 6 years too so she may be ok on that front as well.

Her best bet really is to speak to an independent mortgage adviser/broker and discussing everything.

rtho782

GingerBob wrote: »

These big brother databases are only allowed to keep records for a specific time - 5 or 6 years, I think.


Worryingly, these same databases can record 'suspicions' about fraud, and disseminate such potentially 'fake news' to all and sundry (they need proper regulation).


It's a bit of a tricky one, is this. One point that comes to mind - the OP's friend was, I assume, under the age of 18 when the alleged offence occurred. There may be some mileage in this - can you require records to be deleted from these databases, including the CRA databases, for minors?

Yes, I myself spent 18 months getting data removed from Synectics Solutions' database after an application was recorded as "potentially fraudulent" as I used my employers trading as name (as was on my payslip and the bank transfers that they paid me with) rather than their legal name (e.g. the Ltd company) that I had used on previous applications.

Cost me about £400 extra in car insurance which was declined because of the "referr" status.

Nationwide, who were the source of the data, eventually relented and removed it. But it was a massive uphill battle that took 18 months and involved multiple subject access requests and 3 FOS complaints about various companies involved.

Even then it took me providing "proof" in the form of freedom of information act requests that linked the two names (as my by then former employer had bid for government contracts as "Company Ltd T/A Trading Name") for them to remove it.

GingerBob_3

rtho782 wrote: »

Yes, I myself spent 18 months getting data removed from Synectics Solutions' database after an application was recorded as "potentially fraudulent" as I used my employers trading as name (as was on my payslip and the bank transfers that they paid me with) rather than their legal name (e.g. the Ltd company) that I had used on previous applications.

Cost me about £400 extra in car insurance which was declined because of the "referr" status.

Nationwide, who were the source of the data, eventually relented and removed it. But it was a massive uphill battle that took 18 months and involved multiple subject access requests and 3 FOS complaints about various companies involved.

Even then it took me providing "proof" in the form of freedom of information act requests that linked the two names (as my by then former employer had bid for government contracts as "Company Ltd T/A Trading Name") for them to remove it.

I hope you blagged some compo out of the pond-life?

chica0208

Candyapple wrote: »

What does a 'suspended' bank account look like on a credit report - can you take a screenshot? (edit out any personal info)

Has your friend checked Noddle, ClearScore and MSE Credit Club for her free credit reports from all 3 CRAs (Call Credit, Equifax and Experian)?

How much money was involved with the tampered cheque? Are we talking hundreds or thousands?

Has she managed to get a bank account elsewhere since then?

Does she have any credit cards/loans etc?

@Candyapple, I will ask her to email it to me so I can upload a pic of what it looks like.


In answer to your other questions, the report she has is from Experian - is it worth getting them from all the different places to see if any differences? The cheque was for £1,000. But yes, she now has bank accounts, credit cards and store cards - and I think a loan to consolidate other debts - so she has been able to apply for other things easily. It's more just a case of trying to improve her credit rating further to take it up from 'fair' to 'good', and this seemed to me one of the obvious ways to try to help with that...

GingerBob wrote: »

These big brother databases are only allowed to keep records for a specific time - 5 or 6 years, I think.

Worryingly, these same databases can record 'suspicions' about fraud, and disseminate such potentially 'fake news' to all and sundry (they need proper regulation).

It's a bit of a tricky one, is this. One point that comes to mind - the OP's friend was, I assume, under the age of 18 when the alleged offence occurred. There may be some mileage in this - can you require records to be deleted from these databases, including the CRA databases, for minors?

@GingerBob, yes, she was around 15 or 16 years old I believe (I need to check the exact age) but definitely a 'minor' - does this make a difference, then? We were hoping that might be the case but weren't sure...

MrsTinks wrote: »

Would limitations act not prevent her from being prosecuted for the fraud if it's as old as 15 years?

Not certain about CIFAS markers but I think they only sit for 6 years too so she may be ok on that front as well.

Her best bet really is to speak to an independent mortgage adviser/broker and discussing everything.

@MrsTinks, I don't know anything about the limitations act but was hoping something like this would apply! The only info I could find was relating to 'closed' accounts being removed, but as this one was never formally closed, I'm not sure what to think... Are there specific laws on fraud preventing you from being prosecuted after a set amount of time has passed?


Thank you everyone for your helpful responses and suggestions!

Brock_and_Roll

The Statute of Limitation DOES NOT apply to the vast majority of criminal cases - otherwise we could not prosecute historic sex offences, murders etc.


I would let sleeping dogs lie - I doubt that if everything else fine with mortgage app (i.e. deposit, income, recent credit history etc) that a "suspended" account 15+ years ago would be crucial in determining the decision.