He was never a joint account holder on this second account.

They were never married. He was never a named holder on the other account - but does have documents relating to it in his possession.

Hi all! Long time lurker. Quite a complex issue so apologies about the length of this post. Back when my nephew was born my brother and his partner set up two bank accounts - a joint account and a single person account ( my brothers partner) - meant for paying for stuff for my nephew, etc. They were never married. All well and good until they split. My brothers ex partner is now making life difficult for my brother to get access to the second account - there was a not-unconsiderable amount of money in this, including birthday/christmas money from other relatives, etc. There should be no reason for any money to have left this account since my brother moved out of his ex partners home - we do question whether she has used the money for other purposes and is now attempting to hide the fact. We've tried communicating with her since however it's slow going and it seems very much like she's making it difficult. Some money was paid in by cheque so I imagine it should be able to be traced back to which account it came from. First question: Does this fall under small claims court, criminal law (theft - permanent deprivation?), or neither? Second question: If it's small claims court territory can we start a claim against his ex partner to force disclosure of statements and splitting of funds (So what he has paid in he gets back, what she paid in she gets back)? Thanks guys, Al