Bank transfer gone wrong

WOW, did Lloyds reimburse your loss?

A bit of a long story - yes, they did, but not until after we had been forced to take out an additional loan to see us through Christmas, which meant having to switch all our unsecured borrowing up to a stupidly high rate of interest. When I had got our lovely building society to agree to consolidate that debt with our mortgage (at a very low rate) I wrote in detail to Lloyds setting out how much I could calculate we had lost (over and above the four fraudulent cheques themselves) and invited them to do the maths to work out how much extra the higher interest rate would cost us over the term of the loan, compared to what we'd have paid on our existing personal loan. Several weeks later they coughed up a hefty amount which was very welcome, of course, but quite a scary indication of quite how badly we were being ripped off by the additional loan. I then paid off the loan (paying Lloyds an early repayment penalty in doing so) with money borrowed against our house. Fortunately Lloyds had added £150 to their refund by way of compensation for time, phone calls, grief etc which was nearly enough to cover the early repayment penalty. Ha, I love banks.

County court judgements are a crap shoot - This is nowhere as cut and dried as you make out, unless you have access to precedent?

I would be far more inclined to write to the bank, and request the contact details of the account where the money was paid.

There is nothing in the Data Protection Act that states that the bank cannot pass on these details.

You can always apply to the courts to order the bank to give you these details. Inform that bank that this will be your next action.

Alternatively, you can ask the bank to forward correspondence to the account holder.

The results from the small claims court are generally realted to the quality of the initial claim. I run my own business and have used it a number of times to get re-calcitrant clients to pay up. Be brief, stick to the facts, provide clear evidence and quote the relevent legislation where possible. In this case the Sale of Goods Act and the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations.

Th Banks absolutley will not release customer information unless it can be shown to be under an exmption from the non-disclosure rules of the DPA. Release of personally identifiable information ie somehting that can be used to identify a specific indicidual, wthout the persons consent is precisely what the DPA was intended to prevent. The only circumstances under which they would do this is if it was a court ordered request, came from the Police as part of a criminal investigation or was already consented to by the person in question (e.g they ticked the box that said it could be used for marketing purposes).

You can ask the bank to forward correspondance, they may or may not do it. But if this really is a scam it's not going to help much.

It was mentioned way upthread that the seller appears to be a member here purely to sell stuff. Without knowing who he is I don't know how many sales he's made but wonder, if it's a few, if he's made a genuine mistake and maybe given the bank details of another of his customers. Perhaps another forumite suddenly got unexpectedly richer?

How long has he been a member and how many sales does he appear to have made?

The results from the small claims court are generally realted to the quality of the initial claim. I run my own business and have used it a number of times to get re-calcitrant clients to pay up. Be brief, stick to the facts, provide clear evidence and quote the relevent legislation where possible. In this case the Sale of Goods Act and the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations.

I don't see how the DSRs would apply, unless "James" is acting in the course of a business. Even then, I don't see where they are applicable.

I'm not sure, either, how SOGA applies - either in general, or any specific section.

If there is any claim against "James", surely it would be for breach of contract.

Th Banks absolutley will not release customer information unless it can be shown to be under an exmption from the non-disclosure rules of the DPA. Release of personally identifiable information ie somehting that can be used to identify a specific indicidual, wthout the persons consent is precisely what the DPA was intended to prevent. The only circumstances under which they would do this is if it was a court ordered request, came from the Police as part of a criminal investigation or was already consented to by the person in question (e.g they ticked the box that said it could be used for marketing purposes).

You can ask the bank to forward correspondance, they may or may not do it. But if this really is a scam it's not going to help much.
Disclosure of the account holders name and address, for the purpose of remediating the incorrect payment, would probably satisfy one of the conditions under Schedule 2 of the DPA- either 1, where consent has already been given (determined by the wording of the account application), or 2.

Applying for a court order (which would satisfy condition 3) would make this explicit.

you make me so hot when you talk like that TW2

You love it, you dirty minx.

It was mentioned way upthread that the seller appears to be a member here purely to sell stuff. Without knowing who he is I don't know how many sales he's made but wonder, if it's a few, if he's made a genuine mistake and maybe given the bank details of another of his customers. Perhaps another forumite suddenly got unexpectedly richer?

How long has he been a member and how many sales does he appear to have made?

Member for a good few years, lots of sales. Looks like he was online 20 minutes ago.
Any replies philosovril?

Based on that it sounds like a genuine mistake but it was the sellers mistake and he's the one IMO who needs to make the effort to sort this one out.
He almost certainly got the account details from somewhere other than thin air and needs to retrace his steps to rediscover them. Perhaps a search of his email inbox?

If he's made so many sales on here without any problems you've got to assume he's fairly honest right?
I would say I agree with wvm. Occam's Razor and all that.

When things go tits, that's when you find out how honest a seller is.

Philosovril- Is he still trying to sell the items in question on here? and has he been in contct with you since starting this thread?

he has had activity on here recently but no posting or anything... a little strange he is just lurking!

I did a bit of digging and it looks like you didnt post anything in a sales thread so i assume it was all via PM or email... not that it makes any difference to your situation at all but it just seems to be a really bizarre set of circumstances...

(or perhaps i'm no detective)

I'll tell it anyway. Perhaps it'll cheer philosovril up.

A German couple have a baby boy. All is well, until they notice that as he grows up a little, he isn't talking. He laughs and cries, but no words. At all. His toddler years pass, still no talking. He grows up some more, still no talking.

One day, when the boy is about 8, he and his parents are having dinner. He starts on his pudding, and suddenly says, quite calmly, 'This apple strudel is lukewarm.'

His parents exclaim with joy and surprise that little Joachim has finally uttered a normal sentence.
'Son', asks his father, 'if you can talk well, why have you never spoken, not even one tiny thing, until this moment?'
'Well, up to now, everything has been satisfactory.'

Why would the boy speak in English?

Why doesn't someone else try and buy these wheels off this guy and find out what account number he gives this time around...If it is a scam he'll most likely provide the same acc# and sort he gave to Phil.

you make me so hot when you talk like that TW2

The man LOVES the Sale of Goods Act.

I pointed him to this thread and he sent me a PM saying that he's going to post the items and takes the financial loss.

well thats good news...

but still leaves a bit of a bad taste

I'll keep you lot in the loop!

make sure hes got the right address.....

Glad to see he's doing the right thing.

Yay! The goods arrived! I'm so glad all went good in the end.
Thanks all for your great support and kind words! That helped a lot!! :)

Nice one and well done the seller for doing the right thing. I hope it all gets fully sorted eventually and neither of you end up out of pocket.

good news