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.

OP, at what age does you daughter have access to her trust fund? That’s pretty crucial here.

Apologies it is a children's savings account, not a trust fund, I've been looking through the paperwork and trying to Google but as it's a legacy account I'm unable to find anything

We are not on speaking terms, but even if I did ask he would just lie. Will definitely be getting daughter an account he cannot lay his hands on in future!

Your daughter could try small claims court. That seems to be for sums up to 10K.

Did your ex pay maintenance over and above what is mandatory or pay for anything else for your daughter? - as he could say that this was with her money.

Does he actually have any money if she were to win?

If he does have money even the contact from the court might get him to repay the money.

Edit to say it might be you that has to take him to court due to her age?

You said that he had a history of financial abuse, so why did you agree that either one of you alone could withdraw funds?
You’ve been too trusting, and your daughter has lost her money as a result of that.

I’m guessing if he has stolen this money off his daughter then he hasn’t got the money to pay her back.

That makes small claims court pretty useless even once you win.
He shouldn’t just get away with this but I can’t see a way he doesn’t. It may cost him his relationship with his daughter when she finds out though.

Nice bit of victim blaming here

No, he’s been completely enabled to take his poor daughter’s money.
Given full access despite his history of financial abuse. Madness.

I used to work for Halifax and if I remember rightly it is the same as having a joint bank account for example, unless you stipulated at the time of opening the account that it needed 2 signatures. Normally the savings books that come with save4its had the numbers 1 or 2 on the inside page to indicate how many signatures were needed.

Didn’t you notice that the account was set up when the daughter was born in 2008? The OP probably wasn’t aware of his abusive nature back then.

@withholdcontact did you set up the government savings one at the same time for your daughter? that one will be safe, if you did. I dont understand how any parent could steal from their child at all? even a penny on their bedroom floor goes into a dish in their room.

Could have changed the terms anytime.

He has only been paying regular maintenance since roughly around 5 months into when he starred taking the money (only the amount required by CMS).

He also bought an Audi TT during the time he was taking the money, so that could be worth something.

I was mistaken and thought we could not move or take any money without the other agreeing, I definitely should have looked into it after the divorce, but unfortunately I did not and now this has happened.

I didn't understand what financial or emotional abuse were really until years into the relationship, mainly by reading and being educated by Mumsnet.

Don’t blame yourself OP, he is a thieving weasel.

He's despicable. You get drawn in to these kinds of abusive relationships but somehow don't believe they can do this sort of thing to their own child. I hope he gets his just desserts & she sees what kind of "man" he is.

Why do you keep twittering on about legal aid/solicitors?

Ask Halifax first

I suggest you contact Halifax and ask if they can give you any advice as to what to do. You could also contact the police as it is theft.

Is this something your daughter could claim under the Small Claims Court? That's free to apply to.

Try citizens advice, what a dick!

Yes a man’s awful behaviour is a woman’s fault. Quite.

I doubt you will have any redress on this. If only one signature is required for withdrawal of funds. It's awful what he did but I think it will be difficult to take this further.

It won't be considered theft as he was named as an account holder. IMHO. Wrong though it may sound and is of course despicable.

have you read any of OP’s posts?? He’s her EX husband and is abusive.

‘just ask’, honestly

Don't waste your time with legal enquiries at this stage. Go straight to the bank and explain - ask them about access. If only one signature was needed they won't be able to help. If two were needed and he forged your signature then they can advise on next steps.

Has your DD asked him where her money is?