Fight with the council…advice needed!

Twister9

One of the reasons it took a while for him to become aware of the refund fraud was cause there was so much confusion around him switching from a joint account to a single one and therefore being able to claim for the single person reduction that this is the amount of paperwork he received in 2020 from the council!! It’s unreal, and they kept getting their figures mixed up so at one point they said he owed £3k! Absolute mess!

CardinalWolsey

Occams Razor - despite your certainty that it isn't, to me this sounds as if the ex has extracted the money from a joint account. Legally speaking, she and the council would therefore have done nothing wrong: if she passed their identity checks, she is as entitled to the money in the joint account as your other half (much the same as a joint account at a bank).

ciderboy2009

The easiest way to check if the name on the account is the ex is to attempt to send a small payment to it from your bank online by setting it up as a new recipient with the ex's name - your banking app should warn you if the name doesn't match.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Something about this doesn't add up.  To wit.

Account One (single): £500 in arrears, 

Account Two (joint): £500 in credit

Extraction of funds occurs 

Account One (single): £500 in arrears

Account Two (joint): nil balance

What has happened to the arrears on Account One? 

Re-reading the OP's first account, the following text appears: it became obvious to my partner something had happened, and he realised somehow someone had gotten almost £500 of his council tax payments refunded. The irony is, no one will help my partner because technically speaking he isn’t involved, he hasn’t lost any money and he hasn’t been the victim of fraud, the council have

I read that as suggesting, without specifically saying, that the council have written off the arrears on Account One.  Have they?  There will be some admission of a mistake in that case.  The problem, if that is the case, is exactly as the OP has described: the partner is a victim of nothing.  He owed the council £500 and has paid them £500; everything balances so there's nothing to pursue in the civil court.  Crime?  Yes, potentially, but the victim is now the council given that they are the aggrieved party; the £500 write off on Account One was made with their money, given that the OP's partner's money has now gone.  

Which brings us to a bigger question: why do you care?  Why are you so desperate for the council, a third party, to pursue another third party, Miss Ann Nonymous-Fraudster of Leicester?  Unless, of course, the identity of the fraudster is known and you feel he or she ought to be punished.  It's a strange point of principle to wish to carry on with otherwise.  

Manxman_in_exile

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

...Re-reading the OP's first account, the following text appears: it became obvious to my partner something had happened, and he realised somehow someone had gotten almost £500 of his council tax payments refunded. The irony is, no one will help my partner because technically speaking he isn’t involved, he hasn’t lost any money and he hasn’t been the victim of fraud, the council have

I read that as suggesting, without specifically saying, that the council have written off the arrears on Account One.  Have they?  There will be some admission of a mistake in that case.  The problem, if that is the case, is exactly as the OP has described: the partner is a victim of nothing.  He owed the council £500 and has paid them £500; everything balances so there's nothing to pursue in the civil court.  Crime?  Yes, potentially, but the victim is now the council given that they are the aggrieved party; the £500 write off on Account One was made with their money, given that the OP's partner's money has now gone... 

Hmmm.

Fair point that it's not clear what loss the OP's partner has suffered or what they are complaining about regarding this £500?

Ergates

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Something about this doesn't add up.  To wit.

Account One (single): £500 in arrears, 

Account Two (joint): £500 in credit

Extraction of funds occurs 

Account One (single): £500 in arrears

Account Two (joint): nil balance

What has happened to the arrears on Account One? 

Re-reading the OP's first account, the following text appears: it became obvious to my partner something had happened, and he realised somehow someone had gotten almost £500 of his council tax payments refunded. The irony is, no one will help my partner because technically speaking he isn’t involved, he hasn’t lost any money and he hasn’t been the victim of fraud, the council have

I read that as suggesting, without specifically saying, that the council have written off the arrears on Account One.  Have they?  There will be some admission of a mistake in that case.  The problem, if that is the case, is exactly as the OP has described: the partner is a victim of nothing.  He owed the council £500 and has paid them £500; everything balances so there's nothing to pursue in the civil court.  Crime?  Yes, potentially, but the victim is now the council given that they are the aggrieved party; the £500 write off on Account One was made with their money, given that the OP's partner's money has now gone.  

Which brings us to a bigger question: why do you care?  Why are you so desperate for the council, a third party, to pursue another third party, Miss Ann Nonymous-Fraudster of Leicester?  Unless, of course, the identity of the fraudster is known and you feel he or she ought to be punished.  It's a strange point of principle to wish to carry on with otherwise.  

I believe Account One is still in arrears and the OP's partner still owes the money.  So the council hasn't been the victim of fraud, the partner has. They paid money to the wrong account, before they could get this rectified (and the arrears on the other account cleared) somebody else had the money refunded to a different account.  OP's partner's money is gone and they still have to pay the council.