unexpected payments into our bank account

shipdham9

Hi all,

hoping for a bit of help and advice...

last friday my girlfriend had £380 paidd into her current account which seems to have come from a large national recruitment agency. She registered with this agency over six months ago, so they do have her account details, but has never worked for them. We didn't know what to do, and today (fri 25th jan) another £380 has been paid into her account.

We have no idea if it is a bank error, or the company's error, and have not had any contact by phone/email/post from either.

We haven't spent any of the money as we were expecting it to either disappear, or someone to contact us regarding the payments.

have been trying to find out our legal position etc but to no avail...does anyone know what the situation may be?

To be honest, whilst we've been struggling with the moral implications, we're not inclined to go out of our way to own up and pay it back, but intend to hold onto the money until someone claims it back. but are wondering are there any circumstances or timeframes in which the money becomes ours? what if no-one ever tries to claim it back?

any advice would be much appreciated...thanks

DeepSporran

I won't go into the morals (though other posters will probably do so.)

Your situation comes up regularly on these forums.

It is not your money and if you don't make any attempt to find out where it came from then it may look bad when the rightful owner finds out where it is and tries to reclaim it. That will almost certainly happen, sooner or later.

Worse, if you have spent the money your bank may just take it out of your account anyway and you may end up overdrawn and face bank charges.

If it has been paid in by the recruitment agency (maybe they've mixed up your GFs records with another employee) then by not being honest with them, you may jeopardise any chance of getting work from them.

shipdham9

thanks, have been pondering on this...if it was the agency's mistake can the bank take the money from her account without contacting her for authorisation?

we thought it might just br a one off, but if they keep paying in £380 a week it's soon gonna run into thousands which is a bit worrying.

have thought of putting the money in a high interest account or premium bonds etc so we can pay it back as and when, but still get some benefit.

evryone we speak to says spend spend spend!! but it's different when its you facing the consequences!

Mikeyorks

shipdham9 wrote: »

thanks, have been pondering on this...if it was the agency's mistake can the bank take the money from her account without contacting her for authorisation?!

Yes. They didn't need permission to put it in .... the converse equally works. There's probably someone trying to live on nothing at the moment and working out, with the Agency, where their money's gone. It's likely been paid by BACS Direct Credit ... so it's readily traceable when they look.

shipdham9 wrote: »

have thought of putting the money in a high interest account or premium bonds etc so we can pay it back as and when, but still get some benefit.!

Which just compounds the problem ... as it's then obvious you were aware of it????

jonnyd281

DeepSporran wrote: »

It is not your money and if you don't make any attempt to find out where it came from then it may look bad when the rightful owner finds out where it is and tries to reclaim it. That will almost certainly happen, sooner or later.

Worse, if you have spent the money your bank may just take it out of your account anyway and you may end up overdrawn and face bank charges.

If it has been paid in by the recruitment agency (maybe they've mixed up your GFs records with another employee) then by not being honest with them, you may jeopardise any chance of getting work from them.

Never mind employment I saw an article about a girl who had £120,000 paid into her account accidentally - she spent it,, gave it to her family etc, I believe at the end of her trial she got two years.

shipdham9

good point, re transferring the money - this is advice i've seen on other forums in similar situations.

as far as someone living on nothing goes...you are, of course assuming the money relates to someones wages...how would we know if it's not a bill for services/products the agency is paying to another company? and surely if it was for a person thet would have resolved this issue without making another payment?

shipdham9

I read the article too johnny.

thing i wonder is....what if no-one ever claims the money? I have a friend who was paid expenses by her company which she never requested, and they never sought to reclaim it, she no longer even works for them.

another friend was in a similar situation, and ended up coming to an agreement with her bank to repay a small amount each month over a period of time, as she had spent the money, but they didn't want any expense of taking her to court to get it back...she looked at it as an interest free loan!!

Mikeyorks

shipdham9 wrote: »

good point, re transferring the money - this is advice i've seen on other forums in similar situations.

................. so why are you asking on here? All fictitious? Having a Trolling evening?

bengal-stripe

Why do these sort of thing only happen to new posters?

Terri_009

Its what probably drives them to come onto forums and post in the first place

HugoSP

There is something in all of us that risks considering faceless institutions to be fair game when small amounts of money are involved.

That doesn't mean to say that it is a faceless organisation that is facing the loss, or even if they are, then it is right. Far from it infact.

The likely scenario is that someone is working hard for that money and not getting it. I hope your GF can put herself in the position of someone who is owed £300 each month and not getting it. That is the effect that her keeping quiet about it is having on someone else.

An ex colleague of mine went without pay for 2 months because of a similar error. Our employer had passed all the correct bank details onto their wages department and his payslips were all correct etc but the money wasn't entering his account. He was an elderly gent who was literally going without his basics whilst this happened.

Meanwhile, no doubt there was someone like the OP who was collecting this money in his bank account and keeping quiet about it - WRONG!

As I understand it the bank coughed up and reimbursed him in full, but they then had the task of extracting the money out of the little scroat who hoped he would keep it.

It is your responsibility to inform your bank of the error. If you know where the money has come from tell the source that an error has been made, and make the money available to them. By all means forward costs to them for Recorded Delivery letters etc if that has been necessary.

If you get no response then a recorded delivery letter to the bank or company concerned would be a good move, then set the money aside, maybe via an instant access account to avoid you spending it by mistake. Let the bank know you are doing this for this reason via recorded delivery then you can't be accused of theft. Make it clear that the money is available to be repayed on demand once they can reasonably explain how the error has occurred.