Money Left in Cash Machine, claimed by Supermarket

Tuffpro

I found some money in a cash point machine, which is outside a Tesco's.
I took the £200 to the customer service desk, told them what happened and asked if they would be able to speak to the bank and hopefully trace the rightful owner.
On following this up i have been told that Tesco are not going to be even try to trace the owner, they are unable to even liaise with the bank apparently?????
Tesco say they are keeping the money if no one comes into the store to claim it.
Not happy about this, having been initially told by staff that a least an attempt would be made to find the owner. Had I been given the correct information i would have taken it to a bank branch or to the local cop shop.....

I want this money mainly not to go to cooperation Tesco, like they need £200
It should go to the owner if possible or back to me as the honest finder.

Any advice on how to best challenge Tesco to get this money back :mad:

comeandgo

It seems to be the norm that no attempt is made to find the owner of lost property. We found a wallet in a remote car park with a few hundred pounds and a bank card and credit card with a name it, handed it into police who said if the owner contacted them, it would be returned but they would not contact the bank to find the owner. We did get the money as the owner did not contact the police.

For your money does the area have a face book page, maybe you could mention on there that there had been money found but I suppose the problem then is how would Tesco identity the owner?

Sorry not much help.

JGB1955

It won't be going to Tesco - they are just guardians of it until the rightful owner turns up.

p00hsticks

Tuffpro wrote: »

Any advice on how to best challenge Tesco to get this money back :mad:

Is there a provider contact number on the ATM ?

If so let them know what's happened and that Tesco Customer Services have the money. As the money was withdrawn from the machine (although not by the intended recipiemt) it'll balance and they won't realise that anything is wrong.

I'd always been led to believe that if the money isn't withdrawn from the machine after a certain time the machine pulls it back in again, but it sounds like that doesn;t happen....

swindiff

I found £20 in Aldi car park a little while back. Went into the store and gave my details to store manager in case anyone came looking for it. No way would I have just handed over the money.

p00hsticks

JGB1955 wrote: »

It won't be going to Tesco - they are just guardians of it until the rightful owner turns up.

I think the point the OP is making is that the rightful owner might not turn up in Tescos, or if they do customer services will repeat the claim that the ATM is nothing to do with them.

And if the person missing the money goes via their bank to the ATM provider, the ATM will show that the money was withdrawn and so there was no problem.

gt94sss2

Tuffpro wrote: »

I found some money in a cash point machine, which is outside a Tesco's.

I'm not a lawyer but you probably technically and inadvertently committed a crime by removing the money from the ATM - if you hadn't the machine would have taken the money back automatically and the customer would eventually have had the withdrawal transaction reversed.

Your best bet is to call the the operator of the ATM machine, tell them what happened, including where and when and then let them deal with it. That way if they get a report that someone didn't collect the money, they will deal with it appropriately.

agrinnall

gt94sss2 wrote: »

...if you hadn't the machine would have taken the money back automatically and the customer would eventually have had the withdrawal transaction reversed.

Not necessarily, if it's an ATM that throws the notes out rather then slides them out (highly technical description!) then it has no way to take them back in and the machne won't know that the cash wasn't taken by the customer. While there are less of this type of machine around these days there are still some.



If it is a taking the money back type then the best option is to stand in front of it until it is retracted, to make sure nobody else takes it; if it's the other type then I would probably take the money and hand it to the police (if it's possible to find a police station that's open). The supermarket staff won't have any responsibility for the ATM, which is probably a Tesco bank one (and therefore there are n branches to take the money to) or possibly a RBS one if it's never been changed.

Nebulous2

I’ve told this story several times. I had almost exactly the same situation as you and eventually got the money - except it was Morrison’s and not Tesco.

Details here - third post down.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5501872/found-a-big-chunk-of-cash-in-a-cashpoint&page=2

IanManc

gt94sss2 wrote: »

I'm not a lawyer but you probably technically and inadvertently committed a crime by removing the money from the ATM - if you hadn't the machine would have taken the money back automatically and the customer would eventually have had the withdrawal transaction reversed.

You cannot "technically and inadvertently" commit a theft.

For a theft to take place a person has to appropriate property with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of it.

Removing money left in a cash machine with the intention of reuniting it with its owner, and then immediately handing it in at the supermarket customer service desk in the hope that this reuniting can be facilitated cannot constitute theft.