Spending money wrongly credited to you
Discussion
Briefly...
• Friend's of the family run a small post office (not local to me)
• Woman paid £800 cash into her bank account
• Teller mistakenly enters sum as £8000
• Mistake spotted, bank and police told. Police aren't taking any action as the woman is now claiming she did pay in £8000. She's subsequently spent most of it.
• PO are expecting the £7200 to be paid by the friends
What can be done?
• Friend's of the family run a small post office (not local to me)
• Woman paid £800 cash into her bank account
• Teller mistakenly enters sum as £8000
• Mistake spotted, bank and police told. Police aren't taking any action as the woman is now claiming she did pay in £8000. She's subsequently spent most of it.
• PO are expecting the £7200 to be paid by the friends
What can be done?
From the PO own page; The maximum amount that you can deposit at a branch of the Post Office® is £20,000 per calendar day. However, at some smaller Post Office® branches, the maximum amount that you can deposit is £1,000.
Might that help them at all?
Any specific money laundering requirements at a PO?
At the very least you'd like to think the police would investigate and ask for proof of source of funds.
Might that help them at all?
Any specific money laundering requirements at a PO?
At the very least you'd like to think the police would investigate and ask for proof of source of funds.
roadsmash said:
Scum.
Sorry, forgot to continue my post!!!Although all I was going to do was rant about the police’s response.
I’ve always defended our police force but the fact they aren’t willing to help on this is shocking at best.
Knowingly spending £7200 that has arrived into your account, that isn’t yours, is illegal, and must be paid back by law.
If the woman hasn’t made an attempt to pay back the money then she can be charged with “keeping wrongful credit” IIRC.
Clearly the woman can be traced with bank account details and the police should absolutely be doing this.
Edit; reading again, I can see the woman was traced, but there is certainly more the police can do on this.
Edited by roadsmash on Tuesday 16th October 23:37
You can see why some people would be tempted to try it on, you see £8000 appear in you account, how many people would report the error and how many would sit on it and see what happens? You would also think that the post office bank would be on the hook for the mistake not an individual or small business, I guess cctv has been wiped for the incident.
It’s going to be hard to prove now, unless they crack under questioning about where the 8k came from , and I guess they have had time to come up with a semi plausible story,
Easiest would be they had saved it up over the last 4 years, saving a bit hear and there ! BS but how do you prove it ? And they could counter with someone at the PO must have had their fingers in the till and that’s why it doesn’t tally
It’s going to be hard to prove now, unless they crack under questioning about where the 8k came from , and I guess they have had time to come up with a semi plausible story,
Easiest would be they had saved it up over the last 4 years, saving a bit hear and there ! BS but how do you prove it ? And they could counter with someone at the PO must have had their fingers in the till and that’s why it doesn’t tally
roadsmash said:
roadsmash said:
Scum.
Sorry, forgot to continue my post!!!Although all I was going to do was rant about the police’s response.
I’ve always defended our police force but the fact they aren’t willing to help on this is shocking at best.
Knowingly spending £7200 that has arrived into your account, that isn’t yours, is illegal, and must be paid back by law.
If the woman hasn’t made an attempt to pay back the money then she can be charged with “keeping wrongful credit” IIRC.
Clearly the woman can be traced with bank account details and the police should absolutely be doing this.
Edit; reading again, I can see the woman was traced, but there is certainly more the police can do on this.
Edited by roadsmash on Tuesday 16th October 23:37
How much did you deposit?
£8000.
Really?
Yes, honestly.
But really though?
Yes.
Not £800?
No, definitely £8000. I remember it clearly.
Cmon tell us the truth.
I am.
That's roughly the transcript of the Police conversation you're wanting them to have.
In the absence of a receipt or some other kind of evidence what is there besides a discrepancy in the float to prove that this woman, and not any other customer, stole £7200?
A failure of process, and an expensive lesson, but beyond that I'm not sure there's much the Police can do in this or any other "they said, she said" situation.
£8000.
Really?
Yes, honestly.
But really though?
Yes.
Not £800?
No, definitely £8000. I remember it clearly.
Cmon tell us the truth.
I am.
That's roughly the transcript of the Police conversation you're wanting them to have.
In the absence of a receipt or some other kind of evidence what is there besides a discrepancy in the float to prove that this woman, and not any other customer, stole £7200?
A failure of process, and an expensive lesson, but beyond that I'm not sure there's much the Police can do in this or any other "they said, she said" situation.
From the experiences of a late friend - small village postmaster - the PO will require any shortfalls/discrepancies to be made up by your friends.
Whilst he never found himself in that position it was one of the main reasons why he decided to stop being a small post office.
Plenty on the internet of people being prosecuted for spending money wrongly credited to their accounts e.g: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6966683.stm
Whilst he never found himself in that position it was one of the main reasons why he decided to stop being a small post office.
Plenty on the internet of people being prosecuted for spending money wrongly credited to their accounts e.g: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6966683.stm
It's really the Post Office's job to get this right, they're running a money-handling business. If they neither have systems in place to avoid such mistakes, nor can cope with the consequences of such mistakes, then they're in the wrong business.
The police have better things to do than sort out banking errors caused by banking staff.
The police have better things to do than sort out banking errors caused by banking staff.
Here's a viable alternative explanation...
£8k really was deposited, and the paying-in receipt was correct.
The PO staffmember then dipped £7,200 out, and claimed they'd done a typo.
In the correct situation, the customer is lying and the staffmember is correct.
In this alternative situation, the customer is correct and the staffmember is lying.
There is no proof either way, except for the word of the two individuals.
You're the PO or the police. You have no horse in either camp. Choose...
£8k really was deposited, and the paying-in receipt was correct.
The PO staffmember then dipped £7,200 out, and claimed they'd done a typo.
In the correct situation, the customer is lying and the staffmember is correct.
In this alternative situation, the customer is correct and the staffmember is lying.
There is no proof either way, except for the word of the two individuals.
You're the PO or the police. You have no horse in either camp. Choose...
The police will almost certainly have asked all those questions. IANAL but the most likely outcome, if the depositing person did avail herself of legal advice, would be a prepared statement saying that she deposited 8K that came from (insert small one time piece of good fortune from an unnamed source--these days it can even include finding it in the street. after what I saw in another thread) and all the documentation shows this. She would then answer no comment to all questions.
They may have sent this to the CPS but either way there is no likelihood of a conviction.
However the Post Office branch could start civil proceedings for their loss. This moves the bar to balance of probability, which might be a better route to go down. But again IANAL.
They may have sent this to the CPS but either way there is no likelihood of a conviction.
However the Post Office branch could start civil proceedings for their loss. This moves the bar to balance of probability, which might be a better route to go down. But again IANAL.
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