Reply to: Spurious Payment - what to do next...

[wendigo100]

And no, a company isn't expected to delete past employee data as soon as they leave. There are 100s of reason why they SHOULD keep it and are probably legally required to do so.

tim

Including their bank details, 18 months after they left?

[tim123]

Does this make a difference wrt data protection etc.?

No.

The DPA is there for mallicious disclosure, not for trivial mistakes (trivial here in the sense that the mistake with the data was trivial).

And no, a company isn't expected to delete past employee data as soon as they leave. There are 100s of reason why they SHOULD keep it and are probably legally required to do so.

tim

[hattra]

I'd say that you need to give them a bit of a b@ll@cking over the Data Protection Act bit - they could justify keeping bank details on file for a while afterwards, in case of possible tax rebates, etc, etc, but 18 months is pushing it a bit.

And they have up to 7 years to claim their money back, IIRC.

[miss marple]

Bloody stroppy Northerner!!!

This was paid 18 months ago wasn't it, into her normal account? So after that amount of time she might have considered it safe to spend it. On that basis they may not be able to put their hands on it so easily. As it turns out she hadn't spent it, but I didn't know that when I made the initial comment.

Actually (and touche for spotting the reciprocal spelling mistake!) The money was paid in LAST WEEK a day before she received the letter - 18 months after she's left that employ - which is why it's still there and she can still pay it back ....

Does this make a difference wrt data protection etc.?

[BoredBloke]

I once had the HSBC debit my business account by £10k instead of the £1k I was paying out. Luckily I was paying it to me. The first I knew about it was when I got a stroppy phone call from them demanding that I drop into the branch and discuss the state of my business account. Luckily as it was my personal account it was paid into, I was able to refund the business. Had it gone outside the business I'd imagine that it would be a completely different ball game. When £14k was mistakenly paid to my company it was the payee who notified me. I wasn't using the company and had left money in its account to cover the dd's. Their initial tone was almost as if I was trying to pull a fast one by not notifying them of their error.

[BlasterBates]

Before transferring a large sum of about £30000 from one bank account to another (both in my name) I asked the clerk what would happen if accidentally mis-typed something and it went astray. He said if it did happen I could demand it back, as the recipient wouldn't be allowed to keep it. Its the same if someone finds your wallet on the street, if you pocket the money, it is a criminal offence.

So I would pay the money back.

[BoredBloke]

Bloody stroppy Northerner!!!

Of course, but also a case of something to do with glass houses and stone throwing ability. I'm the first to admit my spelling is pretty grim at the best of times, but if I were picking somebody up on theirs, I would ensure mine was correct first. Despite my surname, English was never my best subject.

"But everybody whos just been given several hundred that isn't theirs can "by definition" put their hands on several hundred to pay back."

This was paid 18 months ago wasn't it, into her normal account? So after that amount of time she might have considered it safe to spend it. On that basis they may not be able to put their hands on it so easily. As it turns out she hadn't spent it, but I didn't know that when I made the initial comment.

[tim123]

"Obviously I don't know the ins and outs of your relatives finances. Many people cannot simply produce x hundred pounds at the drop of a hat.

But everybody whos just been given several hundred that isn't theirs can "by definition" put their hands on several hundred to pay back.

tim

[Churchill]

"She can afford to pay it back, (and it's ARRANGE BTW) she ain’t spent it. "

EWWWW hark at miss picky. No doubt you will be able to pick a typo or two out of this also! But while you are doing it, inconvience?? do you mean inconvenience BTW?

Bloody stroppy Northerner!!!

[BoredBloke]

"She can afford to pay it back, (and it's ARRANGE BTW) she ain’t spent it. "


EWWWW hark at miss picky. Obviously I don't know the ins and outs of your relatives finances. Many people cannot simply produce x hundred pounds at the drop of a hat. All I was saying is that she could easily prolong the repayment by offering x pounds per week and so earn a bit more cash in the process.

No doubt you will be able to pick a typo or two out of this also! But while you are doing it, inconvience?? do you mean inconvenience BTW?

[miss marple]

Thank you all for you invaluable advice and in response:

I thought detectives were on the right side of the law.

Denny, detectives are on the right side of the law but they need to eliminate the improbable and then weigh up ALL the probabilities and evidence before they reach their infallible conclusion.

Yes she is. The owner of this loot dumped it on her doorstep!

Thank you for your defence there Wendigo – curiously enough, that beach all the scum went last week is only a few miles down the road from me…. We wondered what the traffic jams were about at the time but decided not to join in....

Respond saying that she already had money in the account, and new (their) money got mixed together, so she does not know which ones are theirs and which ones hers. Naturally they can't expect to have her pay her own money by mistake only because they made their own mistake.

I bow to your superiority in lateral thinking AtW – I am truly impressed. BTW, your SKA has crawled my website 4 times this month – should I be honoured?

EternalOptimist, I am sobbing all over my keyboard as I read your post and am tempted to ask my daughter in law to return the money plus an equivalent amount in donation to help atone for causing this international disaster ~sniffle~

I'd be tempted to chuck the letter in the bin and claim you'd never recieved it, depending on the amount. Her name is different and her address is different, it was quite bad luck for the letter to be forwarded on to her from her old address. ~snip~

.

Trouble is, Shoes, her parents and sister still live at that previous address…

~snip~ If it is a case that she can't afford to pay it back, thn she could easily arrnage payment terms with the company

.

She can afford to pay it back, (and it's ARRANGE BTW) she ain’t spent it.

What I was really after was any thoughts on the option of deducting, say, £15.00 for the inconvience (like that bank always does every time they send you a letter) and the other aspect which is that they still appear to have her bank account details ‘live’ some 18 months after she left?

[BoredBloke]

I had a similar one to this a while ago when an agency I used to work for paid me £14k by mistake. I got them to write me a letter to say what they had done and confirming that I had to give it back. I then became a little hard to contact while their cash spent a while resting in my high interest account. Then I paid them back.

Would it really be worth the hassle to run the risk of a adverse credit rating for a couple of hundred pounds. If it is a case that she can't afford to pay it back, thn she could easily arrnage payment terms with the company

[shoes]

She has since married my son (and changed her name) and moved addresses. But her bank sort code and account number remain the same.

She has today received a letter (sent to her previous address in her maiden name) from the Managing Director of the company that employed her for 6 months about 2 years ago saying they are sorry but due to a computer error, they have paid £xxx into her account.

I'd be tempted to chuck the letter in the bin and claim you'd never recieved it, depending on the amount. Her name is different and her address is different, it was quite bad luck for the letter to be forwarded on to her from her old address. They don't know her name, where she lives, or even if that is still her bank account. I expect they have written it off anyway and are not really expecting to hear back. If its a fairly small sum you may as well keep it. If they make enough effort to track her down to her current address I'd give it back, but I don't think I'd do it before then. People may suggest this is immoral, but I suspect she did enough unpaid overtime to cover it!

[Churchill]

That will teach me to read messages posted on here from start to end...

I'll get me coat...

Oh, you tease!

[AtW]

That will teach me to read messages posted on here from start to end...

I'll get me coat...