Maybe anyone of you can help

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Sorry, this will be a bit off topic, but this situation can also happen to a lorry driver :slight_smile:

I am starting to google, but maybe someone have been trough the similar situation so I decided to ask here first:

My partner has a dispute with her employer. She should be paid about 280 pounds for her Christmas holidays, but they paid her only 40. After several grievances, meetings, beggings etc. they “made her redundant” and decided to pay her another 80 (so the sum will total to 120). But (hey, there is a justice on that word!!! :grimacing: ) they ■■■■■■ it up and they paid over 500 on her account by mistake. Now they politely ask her if she can return it.

Off course she can, we are honest people, not a thieves. But we want to deduct from that all holiday pay and salaries they owe her and return only what will left after it.

First question: Can we legally do it? We are not stealing the money they paid to us by mistake, we just taking off them amount they owe to my partner… Before they were playing with her money, now the ball is on our side of the court…

Second question:
When she was pushing them too strong, they stopped her salary as well, claiming that “they have to investigate the question and then they will pay all together”. Thanks to that and to that that we were already on the edge of our overdraft due to amount of holiday pay they owe to her, I had to make do a settlement with my landlord and instead of paying 400 monthly for our flat, we are now paying 100 weekly. But there is more than four weeks in March, so we are ending paying more than 400 for this months. Also, thanks to the all amount of money they owe to her, she come over the maximum overdraft and she will be now charged for that. Can we claim this money from them also?

On the two meetings they had at work the company owner assured her (unfortunably speaking only, nothing in writting) that he understands this inconvienience and he’s willing to pay extra to cover her losses.

So what we plan to do is just to get all salaries + holiday money they owe her and this losses we had due to them being late with payment (it’s nearly 3 months from Christmas now) and pay back the rest of money to them. Or just the salaries + holiday payments… What do you think? Anyone had similar situation? Are we right to get our money from the ■■■■■■■■■ :slight_smile:

2

i would keep it, you cant be accused of theft if they gave you the money.

3

Ory’s, i would have kept the whole amount of money they payed into your gf account’ drawn all
of it out, cloesd the account and then opened a new account mate! It does’nt make you a thief mate’
they treat your gf like â– â– â– â–  then apologize, and ask for there money to be payed back,and also cause
you problems with your landlord!! Yeah right’
I would tell them to go â– â– â– â–  themselves mate!! :imp: :imp:

4

Mr B:
i would keep it, you cant be accused of theft if they gave you the money.

Totaly agree mate!

5

I just spoke with an ACAS helpline, and the guy said that they can take these money OUT of our account? How on Earth anyone can get into my account? :S

I really like your advice with closing the bank account.

6

I would offer to pay what you believe they have overpaid her less additional costs incurred due to late payment.

The repayment could be on a weekly basis, ie ÂŁ10 per week or what ever she can afford. Provided you make an off to repay they would have difficulty taking action against her for theft. The onus is on them to prove she knew she had been overpaid. Also tell them you are going to the Citizens Advice Bureau, this may encourage them to back off. They sound a dodgy mob and would be unlikely to want legal people nosing around.

If they refuse to accept this and sue you I doubt they will get a sympathetic hearing by the court.

7

If they could remove the money from your gf’s account then I’d say they would’nt be asking her to return it! The best thing to do is to clarify this with your bank.

Legally you cant keep money given to you in error. It’s classed as fraud.

However I dont see any problem in keeping what your gf is owed, & just returning the balance. If the company really wants to make a meal of it they will have to take you to court for the rest & as they are on a sticky wicket it’s my guess they wont bother.

If I were you I’d keep the whole £500 for now (but dont be tempted to spend it) & return anything outstanding once the company had agreed in writing what they owe you.

8

you carnt give what you havent got :wink: then they will have to try and recover the moneys you have spent, which to be fair you never realised wasent yours DID YOU :wink:

9

Keep the whole amount of money Orys, and ignore any more correspendonce from them mate. :wink:

10

Secretelephant:
I dont see any problem in keeping what your gf is owed, & just returning the balance. If the company really wants to make a meal of it they will have to take you to court for the rest & as they are on a sticky wicket it’s my guess they wont bother.

Send an itemised list of your reductions from the 500 with a cheque for the balance
As said above, if they want to go to court then you have an excellent counterclaim so they won’t bother

11

Orys, my wife had a serious overpayment £1000+ paid into our account, this was because they had been paying my wife incorrectly for her grade for some time, a payment went in and then a second identical payment went in the following day… we kept quiet and it took nearly 12 mths for them to realise their error and to ask for the money back we said no probs £10 per mth, ok they said… i don,t think legally you can keep the money but i would offer to pay back only what you think you owe at a monthly/weekly amount that you can afford…

it is also possible for the issuing bank to obtain the money back without your knowledge ect, if the banks are connected in someway, like a member of sentandar banking group… take the money from the account and put into another one not connected…

12

I suggest you contact them and tell them you are going to the small claims court so She can get what is owed sorted out, then offer to sort it out like adults. If they admit She wasnt paid what she was due when she was due then they are liable for charges incurred due to the shortfall in her wages.
Was she made redundant because She made a noise about the money if so an industrial tribunal might be on the cards. Or at least the threat of it might help.

13

i would suggest you write to the company . Tell them you are looking into their claim and will reply once your investigations have finished. This way they can’t accuse you of theft. After careful consideration, say 6 months, if they are still pursuing you send them a bill for the hours you personally have spent deliberating and taking advice, also point out that the advice has had to be paid for. My fee alone for this letter will take up most of the amount they are claiming. You could also point out that in the event you have to seek further advice you will be making a counter claim for expenses incurred. Best of luck.

14

The Yorkshireman:
i would suggest you write to the company . Tell them you are looking into their claim and will reply once your investigations have finished. This way they can’t accuse you of theft. After careful consideration, say 6 months, if they are still pursuing you send them a bill for the hours you personally have spent deliberating and taking advice, also point out that the advice has had to be paid for. My fee alone for this letter will take up most of the amount they are claiming. You could also point out that in the event you have to seek further advice you will be making a counter claim for expenses incurred. Best of luck.

Hehe, that would be just briliant - when she asked for her holiday money first, they said that they had to hire a “proper accountant” to calculate it for her and it costed them 40 quids, which she will have to pay :smiley:

As for now - she has too much things related to her bank account, but I spoke with the bank and they said that it can be recovered from our account. So what we do we’ll transfer it all to my account and then calculate the amount owed (which takes me some time - this is all taxes and NI involved, isn’t it?) and then return the balance. They said to us that they overpaid us even before the money are visible in our bank account so we don’t really can claim that we never knew that it’s somehing wrong with that…

As for ET - she’s employed there for less than year, so it won’t be unfair dimissal (this is something wrong, I had the same: if you work under a year they can do whatever they want and the law does not protect you…) and, anyway, it’s too much hassle (I know, been through that with McLellan’s Transport), so if we are able to get what about what they owe us from this mispaid money, we will do just that and we won’t bother any more… :slight_smile: She has enaugh of them and I don’t blame her that she don’t want to deal with them any longer…

15

Dont forget to add your bank charges and time to your invoice.

£500 can easily be “lost” when calculating time, dont think of £15 per hour, these clowns normally work for around £70 -80 per hour. Use their figures not yours.

If you happen to owe them money at the end, offer to pay it back at 10p per month. At least you have room to negotiate from there, if you come in at ÂŁ20 per month and they want more you may not have anything left in the pot to offer.

And should they be owing you, tell them so. They started it. No, you probably wont get anything else from them but it’ll put a smile on your face chasing them :smiley:

16

take what your owed, holiday pay, bank charges etc and whatever is left from the 500 quid write them a letter and tell them i have taken what im owed and that i will pay back such and such a month and make sure its a tiny amount.

17

Legally I don’t you think can keep the money. It should be covered in her T&Cs of employment or Company hand book
what should be done with a salary overpayment and yes the company can ask the bank to recover it.

That said if you are paying it back by cheque at 1p per week, then your in the right. It would
cost them more in bank charges to cash the cheques and if it goes to court you can show
evidence you made an effort to repay the overpayment. :grimacing: Plus a cheque
is only valid for 6 months from the date it was written.

18

Colingl:
Legally I don’t you think can keep the money. It should be covered in her T&Cs of employment or Company hand book

And my gf should be given one, together with a written contract :wink:

what should be done with a salary overpayment and yes the company can ask the bank to recover it.

I ve been to bank to ask today - in some exceptional circumstances they do if they report this to the bank on the same day they sent the money. Otherwise they don’t unless they have a court order.

19

dle1uk:
Orys, my wife had a serious overpayment £1000+ paid into our account, this was because they had been paying my wife incorrectly for her grade for some time, a payment went in and then a second identical payment went in the following day… we kept quiet and it took nearly 12 mths for them to realise their error and to ask for the money back we said no probs £10 per mth, ok they said… i don,t think legally you can keep the money but i would offer to pay back only what you think you owe at a monthly/weekly amount that you can afford…

it is also possible for the issuing bank to obtain the money back without your knowledge ect, if the banks are connected in someway, like a member of sentandar banking group… take the money from the account and put into another one not connected…

That’s the way to do it, take what’s rightfully owed to your girlfriend & offer to pay the rest back at 50p per week, at the end of the day the money was owed to your GF so [zb] em, there’s nothing they can do :wink: