Demand for payment due to wrongly allocated voucher

Peddiewife

I cancelled a holiday in early 2022 and the company mistakenly issued a credit voucher twice. I got a refund on one voucher and wrote to the company to point out their mistake. 6 weeks later I had heard nothing and used the voucher towards a holiday I took 7 months after booking, which was 3 months ago. My voucher and payments were accepted, but now, some 11 months after their mistake, I am being asked to repay the voucher amount. What are my rights please?

sheramber

So you used a voucher that was issued in error?

Why do you think you should not be asked to pay?

TELLIT01

Your rights are to pay the value of the voucher you had no right to use.

onashoestring

You should now repay the debt that you owe. 

Failure to repay this debt promptly could result in additional costs to yourself . You have stated that you knew that you were not entitled to use the voucher as you knew it had been issued in error. The company would be within their legal rights to treat this as fraud and can take you to court to recover the unpaid debt you owe them.

Hopefully when you decided to use the voucher , you put the money you would have otherwise have spent in a savings account and have been earning interest on it for 10 months . 

TELLIT01

This seems to cover the situation. 

16Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception

(1)A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains for himself or another any pecuniary advantage shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Definition:- 

What is the meaning of pecuniary advantage?

pecuniary advantage in British English

noun. law. financial advantage that is dishonestly obtained by deception and that constitutes a criminal offence.

Westin

I am quite surprised that the question even needs to be asked.

TELLIT01

Westin said:

I am quite surprised that the question even needs to be asked.

Nothing surprises me any more. 

tightauldgit

Peddiewife said:

I cancelled a holiday in early 2022 and the company mistakenly issued a credit voucher twice. I got a refund on one voucher and wrote to the company to point out their mistake. 6 weeks later I had heard nothing and used the voucher towards a holiday I took 7 months after booking, which was 3 months ago. My voucher and payments were accepted, but now, some 11 months after their mistake, I am being asked to repay the voucher amount. What are my rights please?

So you knew they had made a mistake, told them about the mistake and then chanced your arm and used the voucher anyway to get a free holiday? What are your rights?

Morally - you've not a leg to stand on. You knew you were at it, took a gamble and got caught. You should pay up. 

Legally - well, if they want their money then they'd have to take you to court to get it. They may not think it worthwhile. You might get lucky with a judge who decides that it's their own fault for not correcting their mistake. Or you might get stung with having to pay up.

Just depends on how much you want to double down on your dodgy dealings.