We have today received a copy of the letter that the Rt Hon Mr Davies, our MP, has sent to the current Financial Secretary to the Treasury, teh Rt Hon Jane Kennedy MP as she has now replaced the Rt Hon John Healy. Mr Davies has discovered that there is currently no time limit on when a bank can counterdemand payments although he tells me that this is due to change in November with the implementation of new procedures. These are designed to reduce the period of time it takes for cheques to "clear" and the introduction of a commitment from the banks to provide a cut off point beyond which cheques can no longer be returned unpaid. Unfortunately this will not help us but things are changing so surely they realise there is an issue with drafts.

We had a letter prsonally signed from Sir Fred Goodwin saying his staff would not make such a claim as they do not have the technology to check drafts so that same day we went to three local branches of the RBS and asked if they could verify a draft. One response was it would three days to clear just like a cheque, another was from the manager who said she could check it immediately, the third said don't worry, a draft is better than cash!!

Hi, My friend and I sold a car that we both jointly owned and were given a Royal Bank of Scotland draft for £25,000 from a guy who we had checked and had no reason to doubt. The draft was taken to the local RBS branch and the counter staff asked to verify whether it was legitimate to which they said it was. The draft was paid in and the money cleared in the account the next day. Twelve days later however, they sent a letter saying the draft was fraudulant and reclaimed the whole £25k back. Since then we have made complaints to the bank and the Ombudsman with no luck. The bank are saying that their staff are unable to make claims about whether or not a draft is legitimate even though we have since visited three local branches and had answers that a draft takes three days to clear like a normal cheque toa draft can be checked immediately to "don't worry, a draft is better than cash!" The bank states that it is not responsible as the car had already been released prior to the draft being presented which is true however even if we had held the car until going to the branch, when we were told it was fine, we would have let the car go. We also are unhappy that it took so long to discover the fact the draft was fraudulant as the vehicle was fitted with an expensive recovery system which although it was activated some two weeks later, failed to recover the vehicle because it had either been compromised or the car taken abroad. We have the full backing of our local MP who is due to raise this matter in the House of Commons but we are both very interested to hear if anyone on this forum has any views on the case. Rgds, Mike

You're quite right, my mistake sorry, can a moderator move it to the correct thread?

No it wasn't a cashback type of thing, we did everything above board but got stung by a typically good conman. The police have been pretty toothless throughout and I have absolutely no confidence in them whatsoever. It's been passed on from our force now to a neighbouring one as they are running an investigation into similar offences but if you ask me they've just passed the buck.

What would that do? Does he have issues with the RBS too?

I actually spoke to the manager in one of the branches and she told me quite matter of factly that she could tell whether a draft was genuine straight away. That went against what their CH Exec Sir Fred Goodwin had told us in a letter from him that stated his staff do not have the ability to do such a thing and would, as a result, never make such a claim. Wrong! Yes it's been reported to the police who took so long to even ring the local train station to keep the CCTV of the afternoon the guy arrived, that it had been recorded over. They've been of very little use unfortunately. Our MP seems to think that this could be a good case for a legal firm as, given the adverse publicity he intends to bring on from airing the matter in the House of Commons, the RBS may just look to compensate us in order to save the reputation being called into question. Thus it would be quite a notable achievement for the legal firm concerned but we will see...

It's been an absolute nightmare. there's not been a day gone by I haven't thought about what I'd like to do to the guy if ever we meet again....

That would be great, thanks.

We live in S Wales. We are wondering if we would stand a chance sueing the bank with a no win no fee type solicitor, it really is our last option.

Hi, My friend and I sold a car that we both jointly owned and were given a Royal Bank of Scotland draft for £25,000 from a guy who we had checked and had no reason to doubt. The draft was taken to the local RBS branch and the counter staff asked to verify whether it was legitimate to which they said it was. The draft was paid in and the money cleared in the account the next day. Twelve days later however, they sent a letter saying the draft was fraudulant and reclaimed the whole £25k back. Since then we have made complaints to the bank and the Ombudsman with no luck. The bank are saying that their staff are unable to make claims about whether or not a draft is legitimate even though we have since visited three local branches and had answers that a draft takes three days to clear like a normal cheque toa draft can be checked immediately to "don't worry, a draft is better than cash!" The bank states that it is not responsible as the car had already been released prior to the draft being presented which is true however even if we had held the car until going to the branch, when we were told it was fine, we would have let the car go. We also are unhappy that it took so long to discover the fact the draft was fraudulant as the vehicle was fitted with an expensive recovery system which although it was activated some two weeks later, failed to recover the vehicle because it had either been compromised or the car taken abroad. We have the full backing of our local MP who is due to raise this matter in the House of Commons but we are both very interested to hear if anyone on this forum has any views on the case. Rgds, Mike