Money Moral Dilemma: Should I repay money wrongly paid into my account?

rocky56709

Gavin83 wrote: »

This is potentially true.



However this isn't. Regardless of their actions it doesn't take away their right to recovery and as pointed out, with court cases to prove it, it's also a criminal act. If you're telling the truth (which given these are your first posts, I'm doubting) then consider yourself lucky.

It's also completely false they can't give you a bad reference for this. They can write what they want in the reference as long as it's true or alternatively choose not to give a reference at all.



What thread? In all honesty I'm not the one who is misinformed on this but if you wish to 'correct' me I'm all ears. You'll have to do better than an actual court case that someone else has posted however.

they can only put factual information in a reference so unless it goes to court and ruled in their favour this couldn't be included in a reference.

those wernt my first posts id joined 2 1/2 years ago to put my story out there before it had finished and they ve continually been deleted as all the sheep just hit the spam button when its clearly not spam.

heres the thread below copied and pasted I know its the internet but if anyone was that sad to sit and make up a story that detailed you'd be serious lacking something. and yes the connor McGregor reference was a bit cringy but that's basically what I was like as I thought f**** them. as I said have a file full of evidence to back this up



o following on from this weeks MMD, I thought it would be very useful to post a true story just to highlight how firstly if you receive money by mistake you are in no way a thief, and secondly how sometimes you need to take action to ensure you get the best result for you.

I was employed in a job for around 18 months in Belfast, it was working in a police station contracted through a 3rd party. It was close to home at the time ( this is important to remember) reasonable money and I thought a great opportunity to build a career around.

I worked happily and steadily through the first 12 months of my job, developing relationships with my boss and colleagues. Everything changed overnight for everyone though when a new office manager was brought in.

To give some background the old manager was a friend of the regional managers and it became evident she was struggling in the job and had no previous experience and was simply handed the job as a favour. fair enough this happens in business and I had no problem with the office manager we ll call her suzy. so literally suzy disappeared one night and we were told she was taking leave (later to be moved to head office ) so our regional manager we ll call her helen announced she would take over acting duties until a replacement was found. again this was fine Helen was good at her job and ensured the office ran smoothly.

However it is important to note, I had previously worked with one of my colleagues (who later became office manager along with the new charming addition) so was privy to some inside info . so Helen ran ship for around a month when an announcement was made that a replacement had been found......enter cilla.

Cilla was introduced to us all , normal smile and anomalies fine. literally 2 days later everything changed....we ll call this judgement day

some of my colleagues had just came back from a tea break, and cilla in a very short manner announced she wanted an office meeting. fair enough I thought good old cilla was maybe going to ask to work along side each of us to pick up how we ran the office in our individual departments ( as she had no previous direct experience in the role, management experience yes - relevant experience no)

no what followed was a complete lambasting for the staff who just reentered the office as they had taken 2 minutes more and were completely taking the mick (that's putting it politely) I literally thought poor Cilla had lost the plot, I thought at first it was a joke and an act but she went on for a good 5 minutes about respect and threats of action taken if this continued.



talk about starting on the backfoot. although this was no way directed at me, being a father to 2 daughters it made me think what a crazy auld bag and certainly put me on alert for the future.

over the next few weeks Cilla made a point of going round and pointing out every single mistake she could fin, ironically with her not knowing procedures herself this was counter productive and incorrect anyway, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she had issue with me.

now to describe my role, I was in charge of all correspondence basically replying and issuing documents to offenders. bare in mind I took this job over from 2 other colleagues essentially a 2 person job became one, i had no issue with this though as i felt it was a great opportunity and i enjoyed working by myself and having to manage my own work load. so anyway along comes Cilla the next week, rob(me) i need to speak to you in my office.

So i go in, and my friend i used to work with Lynn, is there and informed she is there just to take notes. so auld Cilla basically starts ripping into me that i left the building at 11:57am the day before and didnt tell anyone were i was going ( lunch hours were 12-2) and that this was unacceptable especially in the case of the fire. firstly i apologised for leaving 3 minutes before lunch officially started however explain my wife had called me and asked to pick me up so she could run into Tesco's to get some baby food and nappies for our youngest daughter and save the hassle of getting out of the car on a cold and wet day. it was evident this was the start of cilla picking holes in my work habits and behaviours and having foresaw this i covertly recorded the conversation.

within a week my regional manager helen, called over and asked to speak to me, she said Cilla had complained to her that i was aggressive and threatening in our meeting and questioned me regarding this, thankfully with my evidence stashed away i explained that was nonsense and any agression came from good old cilla.

what then proceeded was a barrage of hate and spite from our blind date host. in the next 4 months cilla had between 15-20 separate meetings with me trying to pick holes in my work, all of which i recorded and refuted 95% of. having had enough i spoke to my union and submitted a grievance against Cilla.

not ready to disclose my recordings yet i attended a meeting with another regional manager and my union rep (having moved offices at my own request as i honestly felt the next accusation would be sexual from Cilla if i was alone with her ) the regional manager in charge of my grievance hearing was flabbergasted at my detail and version of events and off the record apologised to my union rep on my behalf and insisted it was evident i was in no way wrong and infact Dawn was. anyway fast forward a month to December 2015 and despite moving office i could barely pass cilla in the corridor without a snarl to which i was as pleasant as possible and often called her out in front of colleagues on such behaviour. the problem was it was evident i was the only one willing to take a stand, i could understand to an extent but everyone else was too worried about implications and their own job even though they were going through as bad as me and when rumours spread i had recorded conversations i was pulled into another meeting by helen questioning me on this. i think she thought i would deny this but i admitted straight away and explained why.

so 1 week before Christmas break i was suspended on full pay pending an investigation, however i was in bullish mood as bar the recordings i had done no wrong and after speaking to my union remained confident i would be cleared of any wrong doing.

however i wasn't naïve enough to not think this could be a chance for the business to get rid of me, so started looking for new work. in the early new year feb 2016 i was offered a sales post ( i had some past sales experience however didnt really want to go back into this line of work) having had no contact from my current employer, i took the role with the intent on resigning.

then i thought about it, why should i resign let cilla off the hook and leave myself open to being without work if the new job wouldn't work out. having cut all contact with old work mates, and not doing social media i started the new role and looked to make the most of a bit of extra cash for a work or 2

now the only concern to me was tax. so i spoke to a former school colleague who worked in HMRC, they said the best thing to do was that i would be taxed in both jobs just not enough in the 2nd one so put an extra amount aside to cover and pay off when the next tax year ended as they couldn't predict how much it was now so i did.

amazingly my old work basically broke contact with me they didnt know what to do , and having attended a meeting and admitting to the recordings and playing them they were really stuck so i just sat on the shelf. in the meantime i started in my new job and actually enjoyed it, and even more so the added bonus of 2 salaries.

it wasn't until june 2016 that a rumour had circulated that i had gained new employment and in a meeting with Helen and my union i was questioned around this. i denied this and put the emphasis back on them to replace me in my original job but remained employed and suspended on full pay


now back in my new job i was getting on very well with my new boss we had a mutual love for golf, however during routine call checks he found me ringing my old payroll as i was paid fortnightly and found my pay being late most weeks as it needed to be manually keyed. worried about the implications on the company and his findings he asked me, to which i confirmed all the above and that i was planning to wrap up the matter but was making the most of the situation. he basically said he respected my stance and being in the sales industry liked how i was motivated by money but simply said he would deny all knowledge if anything came out. i appreciated his stance and continued on.

now back to helen, her tail was up and she had her suspicions so she actually called my new offices and asked to speak to me. she all but knew i had a new job so asked hte company to reinstate me and offer me my old job thinking i would then be cornered and put in check mate so to speak

however i countered helen booked a day off my new job and turned up back at my old place of work. helen was knocked for 6 she didnt know what to do, so there i was 9 months later walking back into my old office, god knows what was said about me i didn't care but you would literally thought a ghost walked in no one talked to me bar one colleague ( the original one cilla had berated for being 2 minutes late) it was with immense enjoyment i spent the rest of the day strolling about the office a bit like conor mcgregor when he enters the octagon.

then helen came back in and explained that the police no long wanted me employed due to me recording conversations i questioned this immediately as i was exonerated of any wrong doing and it was only my convos with cilla for the my own good that were recorded. anyway i was happy with that outcome and walked out on the friday still on full pay and back in to my new job Monday

finally though they did have a way to out me, they offered me a post in their head office (some 10 miles away, comparing to the 10 minute journey to the original office) i resigned and explained in great detail of the whole sham of the situation.

my whole point is, I took matters into my own handed, and if i had have went to tribunal i know i wouldst have got a fraction if any of what i received in the 9 months pay,after tax it was still a substantial amount under 5 figures.

i paid my tax back in monthly instalments and all is good. infact it helped me pay for a holiday refurbish my house and basically spoil my family.

so sometimes you need to just go against the grain and do what's best for u, im sure in black and white the company may have been able to look to reclaim the money but they didnt and that says it all. they were in the wrong to start with and i just took advantage of their lack of wanting to actually do anything about it. i certainly didn't steal money and i put all my tax you would from a combined salary. so to anyone worrying about a situation similar, dont don't listen to the nonsense on here just cover your self ad dont talk to too many people infact dont tell anyone keep it to yourself. oh and also i got a sparkling reference so that's another scare tactic that doesnt work in real life!

i am no longer with the 2nd employer, as stated sales isn't a career i wanted to further but i was happy to use it for what it was worth (lets be honest most sales job you are just a figure)and enjoyed working there. i am now in a good job with better holidays, pension ,sick pay and hours than i have ever had so it was worth every single moment. hopefully this serves purpose to anyone in the future and helps them out as if id have listed to 90 per cent of posters on here id have been out of pocket and left nowhere!

*I RETAIN ALL RIGHTS AND REPUBLICATION OF THIS STORY, I AM HAPPY TO DISCUSS FURTHER WITH ANY OUTLETS JUST PM ME*

rocky56709

crispy_duck wrote: »

Not that I believe a word of it*, but how does a fairy tale about an organisation that employed you continuing to pay you relate in any way to an incident in which someone received a payment from an organisation that hadn't employed them for six years?

*It's amazing how many bullsh!t stories on internet forums involve the protagonist comparing themselves to Conor McGregor.

it isnt the same and each scenario obviouslyt differ, like the story linked about the girl who had 52k paid into her account by the council isnt the same as me being paid for 8 months by fomer employers who were incompetent so much so that i could take on a 2nd job and they didnt even realise!


as long as i paid my extra tax and NI (which i did) all i did was make the most of their inadequacies

and yes connor mcgregor line was a bit cringy and probably cast doubt around my facts but so be it fair comparison

crispy_duck

rocky56709 wrote: »

it isnt the same and each scenario obviouslyt differ, like the story linked about the girl who had 52k paid into her account by the council isnt the same as me being paid for 8 months by fomer employers who were incompetent so much so that i could take on a 2nd job and they didnt even realise!

But if you were suspended on full pay*, then they weren't your former employer, they were your current employer so you were entitled to that money. That's what "suspended on full pay" means.

*For eight months? Yeah, right.

Gavin83

rocky56709 wrote: »

they can only put factual information in a reference so unless it goes to court and ruled in their favour this couldn't be included in a reference.

So they could write "accidentally paid an extra months salary after they left, refused to pay it back" then as that's factual. They could then leave the potential new employer to make their own decision.

Besides, the probable outcome is they'd probably just refuse to provide a reference. Completely legal and considered the same as a bad reference by most companies.

rocky56709 wrote: »

o following on from this weeks MMD, I thought it would be very useful to post a true story just to highlight how firstly if you receive money by mistake you are in no way a thief, and secondly how sometimes you need to take action to ensure you get the best result for you.

Still a thief. Besides, what you've posted has nothing to do with an overpayment of salary, it's a completely different scenario. However it does show that you're a liar and a cheat so it really doesn't show you in the best light. I'm also assuming you didn't tell your new employer you were still employed, almost certainly a requirement?

It's redundant anyway. To be honest I simply don't believe you and others clearly feel the same. I'm not surprised your original topic was deleted.

lisa46_2

As a payroller I have had to make legitimate payments to ex-employees. We usually write to them to explain what the payment is for, which made me wonder if they might have tried to contact you at an old address?

More worrying, though, is the number of times I have been given incorrect bank details by an employee, or ones where a digit looked completely different to what the employee intended! It's quite possible that you've received somebody else's wages.

Either way, yes, you should contact them.:doh:

badmemory

lisa46 wrote: »

Either way, yes, you should contact them.:doh:

I find that this can even be a question so worrying. We wonder why so many young people are stressed & anxious, much more than used to be. Even when you take out bullying there still seem to be a huge number struggling. I wonder sometimes if it is because as young children they thought (& probably did) know right from wrong. So all was OK with their world. Then they get a little older & come across things like this. When what is in effect "stealing by finding" seems to be totally acceptable in some eyes & then THEY get thrown off course & aren't sure what is what.


Perhaps it is time MSE came up with some real dilemmas & not ones which make people think that being dishonest may well be quite okay, it isn't - ever. Not even as revenge even if the thought of it feels good. We encourage our teenagers to come on here & see how people's finances work & will work in their lives. We need to up our game!

rocky56709

crispy_duck wrote: »

But if you were suspended on full pay*, then they weren't your former employer, they were your current employer so you were entitled to that money. That's what "suspended on full pay" means.

*For eight months? Yeah, right.

yes true they were my current employers but as I saw it they weren't doing anything to correct the situation that arose so I just took advantage of the situation and yes correct it was 8 months I received full pay whilst being employed in a new role. have all the documentation to prove this and also the tax ended up paying £1400 extra in tax due to second income over that lengthy period of time

my old employer also found out i was working a second job and didnt ask for the money back, in short they knew it was their fauly due to them having no clue and just left me in the abyss for so long. infact it was only them finding out i had a new job and then offering me a different role to which i declined that closed the whole matter off. so i left money in pocket and with a clean reference which i have used for a role since