Bank cashed a cancelled cheque ?

ChequeGirl

Hi guys,

So - we're a small business. I issued a cheque to somebody for 1,000, lets call them X.

X received the cheque, confirmed she go it, said thanks. A few days later she contacted saying she lost the cheque.

So, on the 20th I went to the bank, they looked it up and cancelled the cheque.

But now on a statement I see the cheque number is listed and the cheque was cashed - on the 13th ????? - even though I'd cancelled it on the 20th ???

Where do I stand ?

can the bank tell me where or who it was cashed to ?
could anybody else have cashed the cheque ?
is this a mistake the bank could have made ?

Also worth noting that when cancelling on the 20th - the bank told that they hadn't cashed the cheque.

And yes - its the right cheque - serial numbers match.

Thanks

goat2

ChequeGirl wrote: »

Hi guys,

So - we're a small business. I issued a cheque to somebody for 1,000, lets call them X.

X received the cheque, confirmed she go it, said thanks. A few days later she contacted saying she lost the cheque.

So, on the 20th I went to the bank, they looked it up and cancelled the cheque.

But now on a statement I see the cheque number is listed and the cheque was cashed - on the 13th ????? - even though I'd cancelled it on the 20th ???

Where do I stand ?

can the bank tell me where or who it was cashed to ?
could anybody else have cashed the cheque ?
is this a mistake the bank could have made ?

Also worth noting that when cancelling on the 20th - the bank told that they hadn't cashed the cheque.

And yes - its the right cheque - serial numbers match.

Thanks

you say cheque was cashed on 13th,
you cancelled it on 20th,
if that is right, then the bank is not at fault,
her contact to you will not come into it, if the dates above are correct, that is my own personal openion

ChequeGirl

goat2 wrote: »

you say cheque was cashed on 13th,
you cancelled it on 20th,
if that is right, then the bank is not at fault,
her contact to you will not come into it, if the dates above are correct, that is my own personal openion

Thanks for the reply.

But i asked the bank on the 20th - they said it hadn't been cashed.
How could they cancel a cheque on the 20th, that was already cashed on the 13th.

Plus can the bank tell me -

-where/who it was cashed to ?
-could anybody else apart from the name on the cheque have cashed it ?

nlgbbbblth

ChequeGirl wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

But i asked the bank on the 20th - they said it hadn't been cashed.
How could they cancel a cheque on the 20th, that was already cashed on the 13th.

Plus can the bank tell me -

-where/who it was cashed to ?
-could anybody else apart from the name on the cheque have cashed it ?

Sounds like they didn't carry out the proper verification procedures for taking a "stop cheque" instruction. The first thing they're supposed to do is to ensure that the cheque has not already been paid.

It is possible to find out who cashed / lodged it.
It is possible for a third party to cash the cheque.

BTW - thread title is misleading. The cheque was stopped on the 20th but debited from your account on the 13th. It wasn't cancelled at that point.

goat2

my understanding is that the name on the cheqeu means it is to be put in that same name account, i do go to bank for others with cheques with their names on, but they cannot be paid into any other account, just the account with the persons name on it, that is my own experience, all paper trails have to be followed to the t, if it was paid into someone elses account when you named the person on the cheque i would question that

Jet Black

It seems like someone has fraudulently cashed the cheque. Either the person you paid the cheque to lied when they said they lost it or someone found the cheque and successfuly cashed it. Either way contact the bank now and explain the situation. They will be able to retrieve the cheque.

Was the endorsed in any way? Was it crossed or have account payee only on it?

goat2 wrote: »

my understanding is that the name on the cheqeu means it is to be put in that same name account, i do go to bank for others with cheques with their names on, but they cannot be paid into any other account, just the account with the persons name on it, that is my own experience, all paper trails have to be followed to the t, if it was paid into someone elses account when you named the person on the cheque i would question that

Not true unless it states on the cheque account payee only, it can be signed over to someone else by signing the back.

ChequeGirl

Yeah it wasn't crossed- as far as I know.

Bank are looking into it. They said they have no record of it being cancelled ? - which is nuts.
But.....if somebody cashed it. Say they found it and signed it over to themselves(which is pretty crazy that somebody can just do that) ? This is fraud right ? Can the bank just take back the money ?

goat2

Jet Black wrote: »

It seems like someone has fraudulently cashed the cheque. Either the person you paid the cheque to lied when they said they lost it or someone found the cheque and successfuly cashed it. Either way contact the bank now and explain the situation. They will be able to retrieve the cheque.

Was the endorsed in any way? Was it crossed or have account payee only on it?


Not true unless it states on the cheque account payee only, it can be signed over to someone else by signing the back.

thanks for that information, because when i go to bank, even if i want to cash cheque, they will first put it in my account and then do a withdrawl, and i think if that is the case with the cheque in question, then they should be able to trace it to the account it was lodged in in the first place,
thanks for that information, but if every cheque that go through a bank is done like this, then we have the paper trail, i wonder do all banks do this, and after all this was a substantial cheque, i hope you get to the end of this, we are all tight for cash these days

mick087

Ring The Garda.
Tell them about the matter.

Panrich

What date the X contact you to say the cheque had been lost? Was it before or after the 13th?
If X contacted you after the cheque was already in the banking system, they should be willing to assist you in making a complaint to an Garda.
Did you not have the facility to check the account yourself? If I was going to the bank in those circumstances, then I would be trying to assure myself that the cheque had not already been cashed and not relying on a bank official to tell me. At the very least I would have asked for a printed statement on the 20th.

Jet Black

ChequeGirl wrote: »

Yeah it wasn't crossed- as far as I know.

If it is then it would have to be lodged to an account. The bank will be able to find out the account number and the person that lodged it. Normally the account number is written on the back of the cheque in case of problems later.

But.....if somebody cashed it. Say they found it and signed it over to themselves(which is pretty crazy that somebody can just do that) ?

Yes if its does not have account payee only written on it someone could fraudulently try and cash it. You should have it like this.

This is fraud right ?

Yes.

Can the bank just take back the money ?

If the cash was lodged into an account in the same bank they will be able to see the lodgement and put a hold on the account. If not the banks fraud department will have to deal with it.

Suzyq

Is it not the problem of the person who lost the cheque in the first place? What's to say that she didn't lodge it?

goat2

Suzyq wrote: »

Is it not the problem of the person who lost the cheque in the first place? What's to say that she didn't lodge it?

i think they should take responsibility in seeing to it that this comes to a good end, after all the cheque was in their posession when it was either lost or stolen, if it were me i would be right in there with you, then if this person is not trying to help, i think you should be looking at them, the cheque came out of your cheque book, with you as the name on book, there are numbers on cheques which means it can be traced to the account in which it was lodged, the bank i go to will not just cash a cheque, they will always lodge it in the account first. this is my personal experience

ChequeGirl

fair points - but I wanna wait and see what the bank come back with - an account number or name or something - then see what the story is.
There's every chance it could be a mistake by the bank or somebody along the line - either way we'll wait to hear from them.

goat2

ChequeGirl wrote: »

fair points - but I wanna wait and see what the bank come back with - an account number or name or something - then see what the story is.
There's every chance it could be a mistake by the bank or somebody along the line - either way we'll wait to hear from them.

when you get some update, it would be nice to know how you get on , i do hope it is going to be positive,

ChequeGirl

Hey- so it seems it wasn't cashed. Somebody tried to and it was flagged. This "flag" somehow led it to be marked as cashed on my account, but nit on their system, even though it wasn't- which is how I was able to still cancel it. -this is how I understand it anyway. It seems like a few bank mistakes in a row which is very odd so still trying to get to the bottom of it.
Either way it wasn't cashed and today they're supposed to be reimbursing us the money. I'll let you know as I find out more - thanks !

goat2

ChequeGirl wrote: »

Hey- so it seems it wasn't cashed. Somebody tried to and it was flagged. This "flag" somehow led it to be marked as cashed on my account, but nit on their system, even though it wasn't- which is how I was able to still cancel it. -this is how I understand it anyway. It seems like a few bank mistakes in a row which is very odd so still trying to get to the bottom of it.
Either way it wasn't cashed and today they're supposed to be reimbursing us the money. I'll let you know as I find out more - thanks !

any update on your problem, i am glad you are not out of pocket.