Random payment query

[Doodlekitty]

Hi all. This is just a curiosity thing really, as we have already acted.
The week after Christmas dh recieved a payment from a company he was employed by for about a year but left a year ago. Payment was just under a months wage.
They were closed so we transferred it to savings and contacted them as soon as we could. Nobody knew anything about it and its taken until today to contact us and say it was a mistake.
Dh has transferred it back to them. I wonder though, legally if we had left it (I suspect they would not have noticed, its not a small company) could they have forced us to repay?

Yes they could. Your DH was not entitled to the money so the company could have reclaimed it through the courts if necessary.

Thought that was probably the case, thanks. We returned it immediately as it was the right thing to do. Turned out it was someone elses wage. Shame for that person that the company could not have sorted it faster and we had to do all the running.

Yes, you did the right thing. This is happening all the time at the moment as people key in on line bank transfers on internet banking and get one digit wrong. The money goes to the wrong person. It is not the recipient's money.