The Puddytats horrible problem

[puddytats]

The advice we have received on here has been fantastic as well as the level of support, as things have developed threads have got more complicated and mixed up so I thought I would sum it all up here as we would like to continue to receive advice and help!

Last Thursday dh was suspended from work. It is alleged that he 'created a client' and took the money.

The cheques were changed at some point after the partners signed the cheque, we know this because there are photocopies of the cheques. One was then changed into dh name and one into my maiden name.

A 'file' was set up that has since disappeared.

The cheques were then paid into our personal bank accounts and transferred out again. This all happened last August and January. How we did not notice I do not know but we just did not.

2 days ago a second person was also suspended from work. This person was trained by DH.

DH signiture and computer log ins are all over the paperwork as when he did some work on the client he believed it was a genuine client. He is not the only person to have done some work on this 'client'

I know that many reading this will say he did it, but he 3000% did not. It is not in his nature. He also has fairly wealthy parents so if we needed money all we had to do was ask. We have an 18 month old and a 5 week old and our world has been ripped apart.

We are seeking legal advice and will fight this all the way.

Again many thanks for the huge support that we have received.

I imagine (and without meaning any nasty intent to you puddytats) that the bank are investigating it - after all, it is most likely a breach in their security - but they are not telling you anything about it because you are still under suspicion.

Well exactly, mp! I glance at my statements online every few days (just to see how overdrawn we are today) and check credit card statements too (have had a few rogue entries on there); if I didn't have online access I would look at each page when it came in the post - £40,000, even in smaller chunks, would jump out at me. (Of course the largest amount that normally appears in ours is around £2000, it depends what you're used to! )

egg is mother's maiden name plus personal password

I once deposited a largish amount in my current account and when I wrote a cheque out for about half of it to pay a builder they wouldn't complete the transaction until they had spoken to me as my account never usually had so much in it?This was a few yrs ago and not sure if it is every banks policy but they should have alerted you instead of letting it get this far Where did the money \go?

With hindsight we cannot believe we missed it, our only arguement is i was going thro a suspected miscarriage, we then immediatly went on holiday - booked months before - and for some reason just never picked it up.

The transfers out were done on line.

We are well aware of how it looks and are terrified that dh will end up going to jail for something HE DID NOT DO I would stake my childrens lives on it.

Even our solicitor has warned us we could be stuffed

where was it transferred to ?

One is a joint and one is in dh name only. The joint was opened long after we were married and the cheque paid into that was my changed into my maiden name

What bank are you with Puddytats? In order to transfer anything online with the three banks I use (Egg/Nationwide/Natwest) you have to set up an account to transfer into which is ALWAYS there as an option after you'd made the transfer.

Bank not being helpful on where it was transferred to

Gosh shocked at EGG!

Puddytats - the bank will be investigating but on the basis of what you have written I think at this stage they will be looking for evidence on the basis that they think you have done it

As such they will not want to share things with you until they have built their case ITSWIM.

At some point though, full disclosure of the case against you will have to be made to you and your legal team.

What are the fraud lawyers telling you to do right now?

Sorry cross posted - if your solicitor is saying that then you need to get a new one, pretty damned quick.

Did you talk to the lawyers that PPH recommended??? I would trust her advice on this one!

oh, that egg thing is just when you are on your home PC and they name you first - otherwise they need about 3 other things including date of birth (easily acquired I know), forget just now what the other things are.

I do not understand how a bank can allow an online transfer from your account and then not tell you where it was transferred to??? WTF?

I must say that when we deposited a large amount in our account as a deposit to a house our bank rang us within days to suggest we move it to a better account. Was it deposited and withdrawn within days, ie only just clearing?
This must be such a worrying time but I do think that all the evidence will come together as all the bits of info are gathered. Don't know why your bank is being so unhelpful though.

the bank will be doing it's own investigation

at the moment, a lot of evidence points towards puddytat's dh so I imagine they're not going to give puddytat or her dh any bit of info! It's awful but in their eyes, he could be a fraudster.

We have customers complaining that they CANNOT delete past payments from their Internet History, as one off payments are there forever eg Tsuanmi appeal donations.

All banks have to keep full records of ALL financial transactions for min. 6 yrs.

All cheques paid from an account can be recovered, and the details of the account paid into are printed on the back. Electronic payments can be similarly traced - normally at the push of a button (companies are always asking for details of debits if the stmnt description is misleading).

Chase your bank for these details.

my bank statements have the account numbers of the recipient of any online transfers I make. Our business bank doesn't, but we have phoned a couple of times to find out wht payments were.

I'm not sure they're being cagey because they think you're guilty - I think they are being cagey because their anti-money-laundering policies should have picked it up in the first place. Which they should have done, surely?

Egg is as secure as any other online banking - as long as your don't have cookies storing half of the data.

I am still puzzled as to how the cheques were paid in in the first place.

The names were changed after the cheques were signed. Why did the bank not query the alteration?

They were made out in your maiden name but paid into an account with your married name. Why did the bank allow that?

Money has been drawn out of your account but the bank will not tell you how or were. Why not?

I would be making an urgent appointment with the bank manager and asking that a member of their fraud department sits in. There are far too many questions regarding the banks part in this.

What bank are you with Puddytats?

full name as on the application form, postcode and date of birth for Egg. Easily come by really.

PT, doesn't your bank statement give you any clues as to where the money went? My First Direct ones (online) give some information, as do Egg and Smile.

Also - if the money was withdrawn as cash then why was it not flagged to the banks money laundering department? That is normally common practice when high value cheques are paid in and almost immediately withdrawn as cash (unless this is the normal practice of the account - I assume you don't normally handle cheques of that value)

the bank's investigation will certainly be looking at how it happened (from their side). Normally, there is some sort of limit as to how much you can transfer out of an account in one go online. But if puddytat's accounts normally had large amounts going in and out they may not have queried it as much as they should. I made a very large deposit and withdrawal a few years ago (for a house deposit) and no-one queried it with me. I called (out of courtesy) after it happened to let them know what it was for (as often these things are picked up retrospectively) but they hardly seemed concerned!

Barclays will only let you transfer £5000 over teh phone each day unless its between your own accounts or by CHAPS

do you still have proof of your holiday dates?

puddytats
am I right in thinking that this case rests on someone having internet access to your bank accounts?
I only ask because, at the moment, someone is watching my work pc. Someone can get all my passwords (I have had proof of this), which means that they are logging my keystrokes.
I am assuming it's someone in IT with nothing better to do. Either that, or a colleague with deep computer knowledge, and access to my pc when I was out of the office, to install a KW logger.
What I mean it, it is really easy for someone in IT to watch your computer, and know EVERYTHING that you are up to, when you are on hols etc.

I am protected on internet banking, because my bank uses a sequence of random numbers, one for each transaction, of which I have a hard copy, so no transactions can be done without this bit of paper.

i was shocked at how nuch information the it dept can get from the pc's at work. they catch the kids browsing porn and then somehow have a printout of what was on the desktop- frightening. puddytats- how horrible, hope it gets sorted soon