Bank error in customer's favour - uk.legal.moderated

Message from discussion Bank error in customer's favour

Francis Davey

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More options Jul 17 2004, 7:25 pm

Newsgroups: uk.legal.moderated

From: Francis Davey <fj...@yahoo.co.uk>

Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 00:25:09 +0100

Local: Sat, Jul 17 2004 7:25 pm

Subject: Re: Bank error in customer's favour

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Fat Freddy's Cat wrote:

> I don't see how that is anything different either?
> You are not exactly saying you'd contact the bank immediately to alert
> them to the error are you?

> Yup, theft is theft, but there is also stupidity which the couple in
> this case were very guilty of.

> As I see it, keeping the dosh in a seperate account until asked for is
> no different to what banks do every day themselves -

> For the record, I know someone who had £2.5k wrongly deposited in their
> account and I gave them just the advice I stated in this thread. It lay
> in an account earning interest for over 4 years before the person
> plucked up the courage to start spending it. That was more than 3 years
> ago. Yes, its theft, no its hardly crime of the century, and for those
> attempting to take a moral high ground, if its never happened to you or
> someone you know, then you are only surmising what you would do.

And you are guilty of incitement to the theft (or as a secondary party).
I am assuming this is a troll because I can't believe someone would so
openly admit to a serious criminal offence in a public forum such as
this. Saying its "hardly the crime of the century" is misleading, by
definition most crimes aren't, but they are serious enough and most
impact on all of us, one way or another.

My advice to you, as a lawyer, is do not give this advice to anyone
again. What you may not have realised is that if the bank were to have
discovered the error and asked for the money back, you (or your friend)
would almost certainly be constructive trustees of the money for the
bank and liable to account for it, which might mean paying more interest
than was actually earned on the money in the meantime.

In the scenario above you would be guilty of assisting in a fraudelent
breach of trust, and would therefore be liable to pay over all the money
the bank lost (plus compound interest). The bank could pursue you for
the money if they wanted to.

There is no limitation period for such an action.

> So far as I see it, even if the error was discovered now, the bank won't
> dare the publicity of having 8 year errors unnoticed.

> To drift slightly, what about the old question of 'what do you do if you
> find a bag in the street with £1000 in it'?

Well, a good general rule is: something that is unidentifiable and
likely to have been abandoned (eg 2p in a gutter) should be picked up
and used.

Anything of low value (such as a glove or scarf), should be left where
it is: the owner can then come back and find it.

Anything of a higher value (notes, wallet, bag with money in etc) should
be taken to the police (or whoever).

Surely this is Standard Operating Procedure?

If it doesn't belong to you and it hasn't been abandoned by its owner,
then you don't take it. Simple.

Francis Davey

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