Bounced cheques

[musicsmith]

Hi, Writing a cheque knowing you do not have the funds to honour the cheque is a criminal offence. This applies to both personal and business cheques. I know this from experience, the wrong side. My advice is, if this cheque does not clear, write a polite letter stating that you have now presented 3? cheques all of which have bounced therefore he must have been aware of his financial situation. send it recorded first class. In the letter state that you have now incurred costs and increase the amount he owes you by a sensible amount. Something like £10 per week since this all started. Inform him that you want payment within the next 7 days and that if he does not comply you will give the unpaid cheques to the Police and persue him through the small claims court. Give him a telephone number to contact you and insist that due to the bouncing cheques it must now be paid by either BACs or cash. It also helps to give him a call once he will have received the letter to confirm he has received it. He should then agree to give you the cash.

 

Bouncing one cheque happens.... Bouncing two is very careless, but can happen... Bouncing three the Police would agree is deliberate and is therefore fraud and will pay him a visit. If you have to go through the small claims court at least you will have the satisfaction that he will have had a visit at work infront of the other staff or at home in front of his family and neighbours. Lets hope he just pays up, but don't forget to tell him of the extra it has now cost you. Accept nothing less.

Good Luck

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Thanks for that..

I have already requested he pays me by BACS and was told i was making demands on him and he put the phone down on me. I will know tomorrow morning if the 3rd chq has bounced or not, if it has then i will have great pleasure in calling him and telling him that ive just processed the small claims proceedings papers. !!

[Conniff]

Thanks for that..

I have already requested he pays me by BACS and was told i was making demands on him and he put the phone down on me. I will know tomorrow morning if the 3rd chq has bounced or not, if it has then i will have great pleasure in calling him and telling him that ive just processed the small claims proceedings papers. !!

 

 

Well of course your making demands on him, not unreasonable demands though.

 

Lets see how he answers to the judges demands.

 

Do you do on-line banking P4? If so go have a look now and see if anything has happened.

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Well of course your making demands on him, not unreasonable demands though.

 

Lets see how he answers to the judges demands.

 

Do you do on-line banking P4? If so go have a look now and see if anything has happened.

 

 

The 3rd cheque is showing as having cleared !!! hooray, only took from November 07 !

Ive still got the new cheque here though. Im going to enquire as to how much holiday pay and sick pay he owes me now........if onyl he'd played ball in the first place none of this would be happening now, tut, some people never learn.

[Guest wino]

The 3rd cheque is showing as having cleared :)

 

Check again at the end of the day as sometimes they can show cleared but go back out the same day. (Stupid banking system:( ) Hopefully it has cleared

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Ive learnt loads about 'rights' etc since ive been unemployed by him. The acas site is really helpful. Revenues office have told me that my ex employer cant with hold sick pay without issuing a ssp1 form, and he hasnt... pity hes been such a B******d about everything because it just makes me more determined to claim whats rightfully mine

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Does anyone know the time limit on...e.g... I bank a chq which was sent to me in error - how long does the chq issuer have before they can no longer claim it back. Hypothetically speaking of course..

[musicsmith]

If you knowingly bank a cheque that you are not entitled to then I'm afraid that can be classed as fraud. Are you talking about the other cheque you have from your former employer? if yes, then I would bank it as he still owes you money for holiday pay etc..... If it is for more money than you are owed then you have an obligation to pay him any over payment. You can however, deduct costs incurred due to the previous cheques bouncing (did your bank charge you when they bounced his cheque?) and also for costs incurred by having to chase him such as telephone calls, letters etc. It would not be seen as too unreasonable to charge him £5 or even £10 for each letter since the first cheque bounced. You would not be able to charge him for letters sent prior to the first cheque bouncing. hope this helps

[p4nd0rasb0x]

That does help thanks.. I dont know how much holiday im entitled to as hes never got back to me about it, ive asked several times. Everyone is telling me to bank it and leave it in there, if he realises and asks for it back then i will deduct what i think is due (seeing as he wont confirm) then refund the remainder........is that legal. ?

[musicsmith]

Nobody in their right mind would take any legal action against you. and I agree that you should bank it and wait for his response. I heard of a chap in Sheffield who was over paid by BT to the tune of 250,000 he banked it then wrote 2nd class asking what he should do. They replied 2nd class and this went on for some weeks. of course he had to repay the money but managed to make a small fortune in interest in the meantime.. My advice would be to bank it, then write to him telling him you have done so and ask for a figure of what you now owe him after he has sorted out your holiday pay. That way you have then done nothing illegal at all. If he does not reply then it is down to him.

 

All the best

 

Feel free to tickle my scales, they've never been tickled before!!

 

By the way Holiday pay is usually 1 and a quarter days per month

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Thats exactly what I shall do. Bank it then wait for it to clear and then get him to work out what he owes me, ill return the rest.

I get 4 weeks hol a year, but i was only there from beginning of june to mid november so i might have overstepped the hol entitlement as I had 9 days off in august. oops.... he still owes me sick pay though so ill use that as the reason for banking the cheque.

[star_scream]

Incidentally, if you do sue him, you would sue him for bouncing a cheque not for the money he owes you.

[musicsmith]

Too true, any civil judge would take into account any bounced cheques though when making a discision about how much to award without the need of filing a seperate civil claim. I think he has go what he set out for now, and if the second cheque clears then he's laughing.

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Too true, any civil judge would take into account any bounced cheques though when making a discision about how much to award without the need of filing a seperate civil claim. I think he has go what he set out for now, and if the second cheque clears then he's laughing.

 

 

I banked it today.. once its cleared ill notify him that im taking out whats due to me..

 

PS) Im a she not a he

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Oh and.........

I only set out to get my wages that were due to me, nothing more and nothing less.

[Conniff]

Does anyone know the time limit on...e.g... I bank a chq which was sent to me in error - how long does the chq issuer have before they can no longer claim it back. Hypothetically speaking of course..

 

In April new banking rules begin. On the sixth day the money is yours and can be safely drawn. After six days if the cheque deposit has to be recovered for any reason and this will take your account into unauthorised overdraft, you will not be charged any penalty charges.

[Goldlady]

In April new banking rules begin. On the sixth day the money is yours and can be safely drawn.

 

And on the seventh day the banks rested:p

[Conniff]

That's a heavenly saying - there's nothing heavenly about banks

[p4nd0rasb0x]

In April new banking rules begin. On the sixth day the money is yours and can be safely drawn. After six days if the cheque deposit has to be recovered for any reason and this will take your account into unauthorised overdraft, you will not be charged any penalty charges.

 

 

So are you saying that the issuer of the cheque also has 6 days to 'stop the cheque' etc.. once its cleared in my bank is it legally mine ?

[musicsmith]

sorry about the gender mistake! I would never condone fleecing anybody, that would be very wrong, when I said you would be laughing, my intention was that It would stop your former employer from giving you the runaround and give YOU control of the situation. I did somewhat assume that these cheques were not for thousands of pounds. As I said in an earlier post, you must write and inform him and ask him to work out if you owe him any money now.

 

I assume you have the dates of when you were off sick, for which he still owes you sick pay. There will be a site somewhere which will give you the rates for SSP, or you could phone the benefits agency who I'm sure will be able to tell you. Unfortunatly I think you won't get paid for the first 3 days but after that you are intitled to at least the minimum amount of SSP. (I think it's somthing like £55/60 per week) But find out then you should be able to work out exactly how much he owes you and therefore not get into any haggling situation.

 

One last thing, If you have claimed any benefits since all this started there would be a question on the form about monies owed to you by a former employer. The Benefits Agency will quite often chase it for you as it affects the amount of money they pay you. Can be useful to talk to them

Regards

[musicsmith]

No, after six days the cheque cannot be stopped and you can't be charged if money is re claimed but it still doesn't mean that it is legally yours if you are not entitled to it. In this case he still owes you money and so therefore you are entitled. The whole thing about theft is intent. If you deliberatly set out to get something that you are not entitled to then it is theft. If you bank this money and he says he has now overpaid you then you must agree to pay that amount back or reply disputing the amount. You must sit down and work out exactly what he still owes you.

 

Just something to think about: A man makes a claim on his car insurance after it is stolen, His insurers duly send him a cheque for the amount he is owed. Due to a clerical error, the insurance company sends him a second cheque a week later. If he banked this cheque knowing he was not entitled to the money and did not get in touch with the insurance company he would be guilty of theft. Even after the six days, the insurance company can claim that money back.

hope this helps

[JonCris]

Interesting info, thanks everyone.

I rec'd a replacement cheque this morning so if the one i represented doesnt clear (which is likely) then ill bank the new one......... ill get my wages if its the last thing i do -

 

 

Remember to present it at a branch of the same bank, or better still branch, it is issued on. You are then entitled to ask if it will be honoured.

 

Whatever you do don't let the bank staff dissuade you as they might by claiming they can't find out & cheques must take 4 days to clear or that you must pay into your account etc:

[p4nd0rasb0x]

Remember to present it at a branch of the same bank, or better still branch, it is issued on. You are then entitled to ask if it will be honoured.

 

Whatever you do don't let the bank staff dissuade you as they might by claiming they can't find out & cheques must take 4 days to clear or that you must pay into your account etc:

 

 

Well both cheques are in now......ill deduct what he owes me once i found out the amount and then let him wait 3 months for the remainder same as i had to wait !

[p4nd0rasb0x]

. If you bank this money and he says he has now overpaid you then you must agree to pay that amount back or reply disputing the amount. You must sit down and work out exactly what he still owes you.

 

I would if he'd pull his finger out and tell me the amount, but he wont.

The inland revenue have said im entitled to ssp despite what the 'ex boss' says. So im going to get it.

[musicsmith]

Go Girlie!