Trustee has cleared account

[withholdcontact]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help, my ex husband and I are joint trustees on a Halifax save4it account set up for our daughter when she was born in 2008. The account had nearly £10,000 in it. Yesterday by chance we learned that over the space of a year her father has transferred nearly all of the money to himself. Would this be considered fraud? He has not been spending the money on our daughter.

Sorry I can't help you but hopefully someone will be along soon with legal advice. What absolute scum he is but I expect you know that. Stealing from his own daughter - lowest of the low!

As joint trustees is it not a requirement for both signatures if withdrawing funds? Presumably not if he’s been able to do it.
If it’s her name on the account then surely it’s theft? I’d report to the police.

I doubt it as you’ll be joint signatories. That’s piss poor though, shameful

If he has spent or invested the money for his daughter's benefit, he has not committed any offence. However, if he has spent it on himself, he may have committed a criminal offence. That doesn't necessarily mean the police will be interested. You may need to take legal action on your daughter's behalf to recover the money.

Thanks to everyone who has commented, this is a truly awful time. Daughter is 16, does anyone know if she would be entitled to legal aid?

How has he done that without your approval?

If you are joint, both of you need to agree.

Ask Mr Halifax how he did it.

This.

Try reporting it to Action fraud. Its a terrible thing he has done, to steal from his own daughter. Has he ever done anything like this before?

She won't be entitled to legal aid.

She wont be entitled to legal aid. If its a joint trustee system you need to speak to the bank.

Thanks for the advice, it's good to know which avenues to pursue. And to the previous poster who asked, yes he does have form for financial and all types of other abuse. Does anyone think no win no fee might be worth exploring?

It depends entirely on the terms of the trust.

Can he sign on his own? Did the bank mess up or not?

When does she come into the money - at what age? He has till that date to replace the money, with reasonable interest. (There’s case law on this.)

Before you do this contact the Halifax fraud department and check the paperwork to see what the rules and smallprint are around being joint trustees.

I have an unsigned copy of the new account form, I'm not sure if the bank has a signed copy? (Would they usually keep a signed copy and give customer the unsigned?) It states 'We agree that either of us may withdraw any or all of the money in the account and give good receipt to the Halifax...'

Thing is it can be tricky.

we went through something similar, a relative emptied all our aunts savings and left her with nothing- many times the amounts your dealing with.

we did go to the police via action fraud but it’s very difficult to prove. Relative claimed they were acting in best interests and had spent the money on aunt and had permission (they did not). It would not have passed the bar for prosecution so they got away with it.

You need to read the small print of the trust as to what authority and the terms are.

If you are joint trustees, then in theory, it should have needed your signature and agreement for the withdrawal of the money. Your first port of call has to be the bank, you need to know if this is legally possible with the type of account your daughter has. He may have legitimately been able to withdrawal the money without your consent or he could have committed fraud. In either case you will need legal advice.

This is fraud, I’d contact the bank to start with

This agreement means that any person named on the account can withdraw all or any of the money from the account at any time, and that the bank (Halifax) will not be responsible for any future claims about the withdrawn money from any of the account holders, as they have a "good receipt" from the withdrawal. In essence, it's a joint account where either person has full control over the funds so whilst morally awful, legally I don't think he has done anything wrong

I work for a bank and unfortunately in this situation you are very unlikely to have a leg to stand on. These accounts are set up on an either to sign basis is and the other account holder is fully within their rights to withdraw funds. The fraud team will take no action unless a third party has taken the funds pretending to be either of you.

Again you need to contact the Halifax and ask if they have the signed paperwork. You also need to ask them, what recourse you have with the bank, if he indeed was able to withdraw the money legally. I suspect you will need to seek independent legal advice. Sadly, it may be that your daughter never sees a penny of the money.

The OP has already stated the paperwork states "'We agree that either of us may withdraw any or all of the money in the account and give good receipt to the Halifax...'

This means legally either of them can take the money without any recourse to the bank. Morally the man is a cretin but legally he hasn't done anything wrong as the type of account means either person can take out the money.

My mum did this to me when I was a child. I found evidence of this 30 years too late, doesn’t make her not a cunt though. Vile individual.

Legally he’s done nothing wrong according to the terms of the Halifax account, morally obviously he has but other than a telling off there is no comeback here unfortunately

If you threaten to report him to the police, will he cough up the money? Here your daughter and you can give evidence to the police that the money hasn’t been spent on her. You might find a firm that would sue no win no fee, but it may be hard for such a small sum, and even if you win, you’d have to enforce the order if he doesn’t just pay up, which will cost even more money. But no harm in running round some local solicitors. Or you could go to a legal advice centre and get help filing in a claim form to claim in the Country Court yourselves.

@withholdcontact have you spoken to your husband and asked him what he has done with it????? also open another account for your daughter without his name. you can do this online. at least she will have an account to put any further money into.