Is this a scam?

NorthYorkie

We now seem to be at the point where it seems that the payout of £33K in 2006 was not received but the second one for £58K was. At the risk of stating the obvious, you need to ask the company to provide a copy of the written instructions of 2006 to which their letter refers. This should also show the details of the bank account into which the £33k was paid. If the signatures or bank account details do not match those of your parents, then either the company has made a mistake or there has been fraud.

SkittlesnBandaid

NorthYorkie said:

If I was in charge of this issue at the company, I would want to know what the £58K had been used for in the years since 2018. If it has been invested, then I may not be so ready to agree a repayment plan. The point is that a request for some details of the parents' current assets would be reasonable to establish the ability to repay.

If I was in charge of this issue I’d be desperately checking the facts pretty quick. LOL

[Deleted User]

NorthYorkie said:

We now seem to be at the point where it seems that the payout of £33K in 2006 was not received but the second one for £58K was. At the risk of stating the obvious, you need to ask the company to provide a copy of the written instructions of 2006 to which their letter refers. This should also show the details of the bank account into which the £33k was paid. If the signatures or bank account details do not match those of your parents, then either the company has made a mistake or there has been fraud.

We are not at that point at all. The investment firm knows they paid the 33k and it was received. OP parents not remembering something 17 years ago is not unexpected, as and when the firm provides proof of the funds payment, we are back to where we were when the letter was sent. Why would a cheque/BACS payment from the firm to the parents have a signature? The funds could have been paid into a, now closed, bank account, savings account or whatever - no mistake, no fraud.

Again, it's perfectly simple - call the firm, explain the parents have no recollection of this and that they cannot pay £58k inside 14 days, ask for the DSAR to confirm the payment was made, then come up with a payment plan. 

Ergates

Whilst the parents don't seem to remember the payment of £33000 in 2006, the bank *might*.    Whilst they don't have to keep records for that long, neither do they have to purge them and the may still have either transaction or balance records going back that far.  (a balance jumping by about £30k around the time would imply the payment had been received).

Grumpy_chap

What was the legal advice taken by the OP's parents at the time the second payment was made.

A lot of missing information, most likely because the OP does not have the information.

SkittlesnBandaid

A lot of missing information, most likely because the OP does not have the information.

Turns out all they did was contact HMRC about CGT

NorthYorkie

Farfetch said " Why would a cheque/BACS payment from the firm to the parents have a signature? The funds could have been paid into a, now closed, bank account, savings account or whatever - no mistake, no fraud."

The signature would be on the 'written instructions' which would also give details of the bank account to which the funds were directed to be paid. It should not be beyond the wit of man to establish if that account belonged to the parents or not.

Grumpy_chap

SkittlesnBandaid said:

A lot of missing information, most likely because the OP does not have the information.

Turns out all they did was contact HMRC about CGT

Either way, it seems as though the "second" payment was definitely received.
If the "first" payment was also received, then the "second" is correctly due to be refunded.

SkittlesnBandaid

If the "first" payment was also received, then…

…we need to be certain who the receiver was. I understand there is a very good reason why it seems unlikely the correspondence the company refers to dated 2006 regarding the surrender of the bond is anything to do with the Bond Holders. SAR’s away!

Grumpy_chap

Ah, so it is accepted that the bond was set up in 2001 and surrendered in 2018.
The query now is who requested surrender in 2006 and who received those funds?