Reply to: Wish this woman had asked about this in the Prof forums...

[psychocandy]

Hmm. How do you miss £1000 a month for 2 years? Seems well weird... Especially as they're saying they're not flush.

But banks are tossers. If it'd been just one payment I guess bank would have chased it?

Bit off of the other person to keep the money as well though.

[VectraMan]

On the off chance it is true perhaps HMRC could be persuaded to take an interest, it being unearned income?

And for that matter, if this woman has paid tax on her income and never received it, is she entitled to a refund?

[Zippy]

I agree that there must be more to this. You'd have to be jaw-droppingly thick not to notice that the money was missing. And I can sort of see why the bank won't do anything about it (if it was the bank's money they'd be all over the perp like a cheap suit though). On the off chance it is true perhaps HMRC could be persuaded to take an interest, it being unearned income?

[darmstadt]

Its not that nice, something that has always worried me, but:

Mrs Donaldson did not realise that the cash wasn't reaching her and her husband's Nationwide account - the couple only receive online statements, Mrs Donaldson would only check the balance if she went to a cash machine and her husband sorted out all the bills.

What, did they only go to the cash machine once in all that period? Did her husband not see the discrepancy when paying the bills?

We have been reluctant to tell anyone we know about the error, so have dwelled heavily on it ourselves.

So to keep it quiet they went and blabbed to the Mail!

[The Spartan]

Especially when you knowingly are taking and spending money that isn't yours

[northernladuk]

I'd have thought so, but the bank won't reveal who it is so the "victim" can't report the crime to the police.

But I'd have thought the bank could have taken back the money anyway - i.e. by giving the perp a £26K overdraft, even if they had no realistic possibility of ever getting the money back.

I would expect it is against some human rights law to put someone in to debt like that. Really stupid situation that they can't take action on the person taking the money though.

[The Spartan]

Okay so it was a huge mistake but it is pretty sickening to lose that amount of money

[VectraMan]

Surely this is theft by the person who spent the money.

I'd have thought so, but the bank won't reveal who it is so the "victim" can't report the crime to the police.

But I'd have thought the bank could have taken back the money anyway - i.e. by giving the perp a £26K overdraft, even if they had no realistic possibility of ever getting the money back.

[xoggoth]

You would think so but it's probably not treated as a crime so they can claim crime is falling.

[BoredBloke]

Surely this is theft by the person who spent the money.

[xoggoth]

Not a new piece of news. When setting up any new payment it always pays to transfer a small amount and check it's gone to the right place before transferring a lot.

[mudskipper]

Quite - story says that they're on a tight budget - you'd think they'd notice a grand a month missing.

[MarillionFan]

It doesn't take a genius to identify the recipient, she must have had identical name to the lady depositing the money, else the money wouldn't have gone to her (they do check the account name right?)

Sort code and account number is all that is needed. I have to say though, that's possibly one of the dumbest people of all time, followed up by her husband who 'did all the bills'. He's even more of a fookwit for not realising her money didnt go in either.

[Archangel]

It doesn't take a genius to identify the recipient, she must have had identical name to the lady depositing the money, else the money wouldn't have gone to her (they do check the account name right?)

There is no check on the name.

[SandyD]

A costly mistake: Hairdresser loses £26,000 by paying her wages into the wrong account - and not realising for two years | Mail Online

Would have been worth an infraction or two that one....

It doesn't take a genius to identify the recipient, she must have had identical name to the lady depositing the money, else the money wouldn't have gone to her (they do check the account name right?)