I foolishly lent someone £50!!!

Proving the debt may be an issue. I made this mistake once for 200, although he paid by cheque, I failed to make a receipt, and he bouced the cheques. Cheeky bugger said I had the wrong person and he didnt know what I was talkling about when I rang him. Also gave me a fake address. I thought I was safe by getting him to write the cheque guarantee number...alas the bank still bounced the cheques

Go to the Police, hand them all the information and make a formal allegation of an offence committed under the Theft Act 1968. It may be only a petty amount, but you've enough information that they've no excuse not to check into it, and it could help their clear-up rate when it's that easy. They'll give you a crime reference number. Be careful to take a note of the name and number of the reporting officer, too, along with the time and date. You'll need all of these.

Then, go to your local bank with the same information, and the stuff you noted down at the Police station; they should be able to help you, at least with identifying the bank whose sort code it is, and maybe helping with your complaint by writing to that bank on your behalf.

Jon

You're in luck, you are almost home and dry!

If he issued a cheque later to be dishonoured you can simply "Sue him on the cheque". No discussion necessary about who said how much, where, and when, or owt else..

Sole proviso: Providing the cheque was one of his, and not stolen etc.

If he were at this stage to assert it was a stolen cheque and someone else had issued it, if he couldn't substantiate it when it came to court and it was proved he was lying he could end up in jail.

DG

I lend money on occasions, but I will only lend what I would not miss, and I am not rich enough to not miss 50.

Anyway, surely you must know this person *through* someone like an employer or someone you know, so there must be some way of tracing them. You are not saying you simply lent 50 to a total stranger are you?

Just in case anyone's feathers are ruffled, let me rephrase that: they may consider it only a petty amount. The Police sometimes have rather strange priorities.

Jon

In message , Aosmosis writes

Yes, YOU should have written the number on it.

John, I did write it.

Can someone please explain how I can get my money back?

I only have the cheques with the cheque guarantee number. Mobile was PAYG, which has now been disconnected. Address he gave me was fake.

When I went to the Police they told me it was a civil matter. Bank wont release details under the data protection act. I wrote a letter, and asked the bank to send it to his address. The employee sent it special delivery. No one was in to take receipt of the letter, so it got sent back to me, which is how I found the address. Paid the address a visit, found that he has done a runner, and not paid his rent.

I would still like to persue this out of principle, despite the original debt being 200, adding costs ect would probably make this rise to about

Anyone shed any light on how I might go about issuing a summons?

Cheers

Yup, the famous proverb goes:

"Lend not what you can't afford to lose"

Too late to help the OP now, but having been there before I haven't come to grief since adopting it.

In message , Aosmosis writes

Ok, but you said originally that you got '*him* to write the cheque guarantee number'. Which was it?

Did you see the card yourself?

He wrote it, I checked it.

In message , Aosmosis writes

Thats why the bank could bounce it then. YOU must write it on in your own hand (or take an imprint). Sorry.

How did you meet this person? Do you have any mutual friends or acquaintances? Do you know anyone who might know his relatives? A previous poster raised the question as to whether you lent money to a stranger, did you?

I'm intrigued - why, what difference does it make? The number is either right or wrong.

Dave

In message , David Lowndes writes

Its correctness isnt so important.

BY requiring the payee to write the number on the back then this goes some way to establishing that the payee actually saw the card and the cheque being signed. Obviously it doesnt actually prove it and it isnt foolproof by any means, but it is a well established formal requirement of the cheque guarantee card system.

Why not?

That just seems so flawed as to be pointless. Do you have any online references that explain it? I can find references that say the vendor does it, but none that say why. There's got to be more to it, surely?

What about situations where paying by cheque for mail order items and you're required to write the guarantee number on the cheque - the vendor can't have done it, so why are you asked to do it? For example:

"IMPORTANT: your cheque guarantee card number must be written on the back of your cheque to ensure prompt dispatch. Cheques without the guarantee card number have to be cleared before parcels can be dispatched"

.. implies that this vendor assumes they're OK to ship without waiting for clearance if a number is on the cheque.

I can find lots of similar references. What's the situation here?

Dave

This has always been the case. I seem to remember being issued guidelines with my first cheque guarantee card saying I must not write the number myself. The guarantee card is intended for times when both parties are present- not for postal transactions. Here are some details- note it says the requirement to write the number yourself can only be changed by prior agreement.

Neb

In message , David Lowndes writes

See below.

This is meaningless.

In which it says that there can be special arrangements, but I think the references to which you refer are just bull by the vendor.

I'd like to know how the vendor can be sure of what the actual guarantee limit is without seeing the card, (let alone the obvious problem of knowing whether the "card number" is actually correct anyway).

Thanks, but that doesn't explain *why* though!

Dave