Tracing a Cheque from 2006.

Greig300

Hello, 

Can a cheque be traced with only the 6 Digit Cheque Number? We do not know which bank it was paid into (This is all we need to know which bank name had taken the money)

We do know the following:

The date the cheque was deposited 26/09/2006

the date the cheque was cleared. 04/10/2006

The Cheque number.

(not sure to post that here but is 6 Digits long)

The Cheque amount.

£3,164.80

without boring you with the history of this cheque I will try keep it simple. This cheque is evidence as part of an ongoing court case since 2010… we need to prove where this cheque was paid. (Which bank)

The Cheque was paid from an Insurance company in 2006 (Funeral) called Prudential. They have confirmed it was cashed on the dates above but cannot tell us which bank it was paid into as they cannot trace this information apparently.

Many thanks

eskbanker

Cheque numbers aren't unique so there won't be any universal tracking mechanism.

At the risk of asking the obvious and opening up the cans of worms, is the person who received the cheque unable or unwilling to assist, even if directed by the court to do so?  If they're no longer around to do so, would their executor be able to identify which banks they had accounts with?

Greig300

The person who received the cheque is my mother. (But she cannot remember receiving a cheque) mainly due to the time that has lapsed and the emotional situation she was going through at the time. My mother who was also dealing with losing her mother 6 months before the date above and then losing her father was also dealing with all there other personal stuff (House, Investments etc) so cheques, dealing with money, solicitors was a blurr.

My mother who is executor of the will would make any payments into her parents bank account (RBS) at the time including any funeral cheques. 

When her mother died 6 months before the date above she received the cheque from the same insurance company a lower amount of around £900. We have a copy of that cheque and proof it was paid into the account via historical statements but the 2nd cheque (one mentioned above) we cannot trace where it went. My mother is 100% sure she would not pay a cheque from the insurance company into ANY other account other than her parents one.

her brother (the main issue and person suing my mother) a nasty jealous horrible man…. It turns out he had already called the insurance company and somehow convinced them to send the cheque to him. Upon releasing this my mother called the insurance company telling them you cannot do this as I am executor of the will. They said they would cancel the cheque that was about to be sent to her brothers address and send it to my mothers instead address instead. This is all logged on the insurances database. 

It’s now after dealing with RBS for about 8 months to get them to find historical bank statements to find if this cheque was paid into her parents account (RBS said bank statements cannot be accessed after 7 years) but after fighting tooth and nail to get them to find the bank statements from 2006 countless visits to several RBS banks, calls speaking to manager after manager they all said it cannot be found….eventually one person helped and we gained traction to get these statements and suddenly they could be accessed from India! where there stored in archives. Upon eventually getting the statement s from 2005 to the account eventually closing the 2nd cheque is not there)

we need to figure if my mothers brother did actually receive the cheque and the insurance company are denying it although they clearly say it had my mothers name on the cheque and it could not be paid elsewhere by anyone they can only tell us it was cashed and the dates and the cheque number but they cannot say where it was paid.

hopefully that made sense to you! Many thanks for your reply it very very appreciated!

born_again

In word no, there is no way to trace cheques by the 6 digit number, as each book issued to every customer is in the same number format. 
Issuer would have no idea which bank it is paid into. If you were lucky to get a copy of the back of the cheque, it might have a stamp from the bank it was paid into. But the odds of that are next to zero. (see below)

You need to know which bank it was paid into & then they would have to find the statements & look for that cheque number, but even then it could be a different cheque.
All physical cheques are now destroyed after 6 months, but scanned copies are kept on banks system. Cost of physical storage is massive.

TBH, no bank is going to give you that information, unless it is your account. Unless you get a court order.

Could your mother have paid it into her own account?

wmb194

Your mother should check the statements for all of the accounts she had at the time.

Keep_pedalling

I don’t see how she could have pain a cheque into her parents account if it was made out in her name, could she have opened an executors account with RBS to handle estate assets?

retiredbanker1

IMO opinion cheques would be destroyed after 15 years then it became 10 and when I retired after 3.
With bank branches closure I don't think you have any chance of getting a copy of the cheque. The bank may have a microfiche record of the transaction (you would at least have to tell the bank the account number of the account you think was debited) but this will not prove who the cheque was made out to.
I do not think that cheques were copied/scanned anywhere in 2006 (they do now) and the original would have long been destroyed.

badger09

Keep_pedalling said:

I don’t see how she could have pain a cheque into her parents account if it was made out in her name, could she have opened an executors account with RBS to handle estate assets?

I agree. Logically, the 1st insurance cheque following the death of OP’s grandmother would have been paid into their joint account as grandfather would almost certainly be the beneficiary. 

When grandfather died 6 months later, that insurance cheque would be made out to OP’s mother as Executor. The (previously) joint account would presumably have been changed to grandfather’s sole name in the interim. So why would OP’s mother pay the 2nd insurance cheque into that account? And indeed, would it have been possible to do that in 2006 if it was in her name?

@Greig300
Was your mother the sole executor of her father’s will? Or was her brother also executor?

Greig300

My mother said when her father wrote out his will He made her the executor of the estate. She had power of attorney…she delt with all their finances. When her mother died she closed her account transferred the money she had to her dads bank account (then that account was closed) 6 months later when her father died she had third party mandate to put money into his bank account. RBS confirmed this via letter she has that my mother could put money into her fathers account 6 months after the account closed. 

The first cheque was paid into her fathers account. We have a copy of this cheque and the proof it was put into the bank account…. We are questioning where the 2nd cheque was paid.

Greig300

Only my mother was executor. Nobody else.

sheramber

While she could pay money into her father's account would that include a cheque made payable to her name and probably crossed 'payee only'?

Would it not have to be paid into an account in her name?