HMRC Tax Refund Paid Into Family Member's Account?!

jhurling

I was due a tax refund from HMRC for the 2019/20 financial year for around £1,300. I was sent the P800 around October saying the cheque would follow in a couple of weeks. At the time the letter was posted, I had left the property I had spent the first lockdown in (my brother's house) and moved closer to where I was working. My brother's partner passed on the letter a few weeks later. December rolls in and still no cheque, I asked my brother's partner if one had come, she said no. I raise a query with HMRC who can only tell me the cheque had been paid and I would have to write a letter to them if I wanted to query this (great suggestion during lockdown 2.0 when everyone was working from home!). I hear nothing so I lodge a complaint with HMRC, finally this month I start receiving calls from HMRC's complaints team looking into the matter. After some to and fro, their Treasury team confirmed that the cheque had been paid...into my brother's account?!!  They mentioned him by name, his bank, sort code and last letters of his account number.

I'm stumped! How can someone else pay in a cheque in my name?!

We have vaguely similar intials JCH -> MJH but surely it would be impossible for someone to do. HMRC have closed the matter saying there is nothing more they can do, I have asked my brother (delicately) about this because obviously I don't want money to come between us and although at the time the cheque was posted we were not on the best of terms, he is not the type of person to act maliciously.

What do I do next?

xylophone

their Treasury team confirmed that the cheque had been paid...into my brother's account?!!  They mentioned him by name, his bank, sort code and last letters of his account number.

You are going to have to raise the matter with your brother.

molerat

Speak to him a bit more undelicately. He has acted maliciously, he has stolen money belonging to you.  He either pays up or you go to the police.  The end !

sheramber

You need to tell your brother you know a cheque was sent to his address and has been deposited in his account. You need that money.

i think if a cheque is deposited in a paying in machine the name is not checked.

tacpot12

Your brother has £1300 of your money, and this is not a small amount that might have gone unnoticed, so you need to ask for it back, and go to the police if he will not give it back to you as it is theft to keep money that does not belong to you. His partner may well have banked the cheque, not checking that the cheque was actually made out to you and not your brother, but even in the even that this is the cause, it is not your brother's money, so he should return it immediately. Just be polite and friendly about it, and report him to the police if you don't get it back within five days. 

csgohan4

how can you cash a cheque not address to yourself?

I know the more advanced ATM's allow cheque deposits, do they circumvent the name issue?