Large sum stolen - Barclays aided the theft and won't help; what do I do?

sheramber

The actual cheque information was not  altered.  The payee's account information is not on the fae of the cheque.

What has been altered is the sort code and account number which the OP"s wife had noted somewhere- probably on the back of the cheque.

She could have changed her mind  as to what account she wanted to pay it into.  That would not invalidate a cheque.

jon81uk

biscan25 said:

.

• The bigger one, The cheque, having been altered, is clearly invalid. I'm not aware of any more recent legislation, so I'm relying on section 64 of the Bills of Exchange Act of 1882. 

Where a bill or acceptance is materially altered without the assent of all parties liable on the bill, the bill is avoided except as against a party who has himself made, authorised, or assented to the alteration, and subsequent indorsers.Provided that,Where a bill has been materially altered, but the alteration is not apparent, and the bill is in the hands of a holder in due course, such holder may avail himself of the bill as if it had not been altered, and may enforce payment of it according to its original tenor.

(2)In particular the following alterations are material, namely, any alteration of the date, the sum payable, the time of payment, the place of payment, and, where a bill has been accepted generally, the addition of a place of payment without the acceptor’s assent.

So Barclays have accepted an invalid cheque.

I'm not sure on the amount but if it is very substantial, please consider obtaining legal advice. Opinions on a forum are a poor substitute.

The cheque hasn't been altered from what has been said, it is the recipients bank details that have been altered which are normally on the paying in form and the back of the cheque as a confirmation only.
If the name on the front had been altered it would definitly be invalid, but the fraudster has changed their name to that of the cheque, not the other way round.

sheramber

How long was the time between sending the cheque and you contacting the payer?

The person would have had to intercepted the cheque, change her name by deed poll, open an account, then pay the cheque in, wait for it clear and with draw it. 

All that would take time.

Emmia

Why did you post such a large value cheque? Surely it would make more sense to go into a bank branch / post office counter and deposit it there yourself??

eskbanker

starkiegraham said:

Eventually we managed to get someone in branch who looked at the account and showed us a few details - it was clearly set up only to receive stolen cheques and the name was changed by deed poll to my wife's name to pay in the cheque.

I don't understand this bit - in what way was an account clearly set up to receive multiple stolen cheques?  If there was some evidence of the account holder changing their name by deed poll to match that on the cheque(s), how many times was this done?  Obviously if it was numerous times, that wouldn't look too clever for Barclays, but as with everything else here the issue is getting visibility of this account's conduct, whether that's to police, court, FOS, FCA....

Alderbank

user1977 said:

Thinking about it, who is the victim here? Isn't there an argument that the drawer of the cheque still owes the OP the money? After all, they would if the cheque had simply been lost in the post. Does the payee take on the risk of this sort of fraud?

Wow!
The drawer of the cheque is entirely blameless (except perhaps for using a cheque at all). It is not in dispute that the cheque was given to the payee and it was correctly made out.
Afterwards, the payee lost it and someone else got hold of it.
It's almost certain that a paper envelope with a postage stamp hand-addressed to Lloyds Bank is going to contain an old-fashioned cheque. It won't be a birthday card.
Very insecure.

MalMonroe

Emmia said:

Why did you post such a large value cheque? Surely it would make more sense to go into a bank branch / post office counter and deposit it there yourself??

Blaming the victim. People shouldn't intercept and steal.

user1977

Alderbank said:

user1977 said:

Thinking about it, who is the victim here? Isn't there an argument that the drawer of the cheque still owes the OP the money? After all, they would if the cheque had simply been lost in the post. Does the payee take on the risk of this sort of fraud?

Wow!
The drawer of the cheque is entirely blameless (except perhaps for using a cheque at all).

I didn't suggest they are to blame for the fraud, but wondering whether they are discharged from their debt to the OP at the point of a fraudster banking the cheque. After all, it isn't "posting the cheque" which discharges their debt.

Brie

I think you need to get the issuer of the cheque to Barclays.  Or more specifically get their bank to talk to them.  Banks deal with fraud between them all the time and will know how to deal with it all.   

MalMonroe

Hi, according to the following UK government link,

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crackdown-on-criminals-who-change-their-names-to-avoid-detection

"All applications to change a name must now be supported by evidence to show the acquired name and the linkage to the previous name". 

And 

"Changing your identity to support criminality is a serious offence, whether the motive is to bypass immigration laws, evade detection by police or defraud banks."

Although the webpage is old-ish, it must still be current or it would have been amended.

I'd be making further contact with the police, quoting the information as above and insisting they do something. Like putting a more experienced copper on the case.

You could also try contacting the Home Office, who made that policy.

Someone, somewhere, has the details of the person who changed the name. So that's going to be the starting point, I would have thought. And surely the police should have been thinking that, too?

In the meantime, I'd definitely report to the Financial Ombudsman. Somebody has been negligent somewhere and I suspect Barclays.  Their security has not been as stringent as it should have been, whether it's the bank you use or not. 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain

You can do it online. You've had Barclay's final offer, they aren't interested. Even if the Ombudsman investigation does take time, it's better than doing nothing because it appears that nothing else is working so far. 

Please don't let them also get away with theft. Good luck, but do chase everyone you can think of.