# cheque fraud-what would be best way to deal



## moonalisza30 (8 Jan 2018)

Hi. situation shortly. I paid Irish Water bills ( silly goose) 

I moved to different town in August 2016 and contacted them and changed my address. When started news about possible refunds I called them again to double check is my adress correct.  I saw in my online account that my cheque will be processsed in 12th Dec ( on online account adress is correct as well) .  When my cheque didnt arrive till 4th january I rang them and they told they sent-and surprise surprise to my old address!!!! I was disapointed as I changed my adress back in August 2016. ok they told me they will re-issue the cheque.   Then I was put on hold for half an hour and been told that my cheque is already cashed out!!! So now they pass it to fraud prevention team bla bla bla...

I went to garda station for advice ( as only persons who could have accessed my cheque are persons living in my old adress) but they cannot take my complaint until I get place and date when my cheque was cashed out from Irish Water. So if anyone is good in Irish law, could help me with advice? What should I do and how to proceed this matter as Irish Water mistake lead to cheque fraud and someone used my identity because as garda told they probably put signature on back of cheque and changed it in some small shop...Any advice???


1. What would be my legal rights? As irish  water mistake lead to someone cashing out my cheque by using my signature

2. What would be right order by getting things sorted out as Irish water just keeps saying we will investigate further and thats it


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## elcato (9 Jan 2018)

Whoever cashed the cheque e.g. the bank or shop who accepted it, are liable. You should just keep pestering Irish Water for your refund as it's up to them to report the fraud. Just keep requesting a refund.


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## moonalisza30 (9 Jan 2018)

all irish water is saying is they forwarded issue to fraud prevention team and will notify me of outcome


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## Learner2015 (10 Jan 2018)

The cheques from Irish Water are crossed - I know I had to send mine back as it came out in both our names and we don't have a joint bank account. 

As they are crossed they cannot be endorsed and can only be lodged to an account that matches who the cheque was made out to. How likely is it that the person who got the cheque has the same name as you?

My guess is Irish Water have made some mistake on their system.


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## moonalisza30 (10 Jan 2018)

They are saying maybe someone used my signature on bk of the cheque and somehow cashed it out in some small shop where they didn' notice that it's from irish water. Now waiting on news when and where it was cashed out. Garda will investigate it further ( in case they used my identity) very disappointed with irish water as I changed my adress in 2016 and let them know and now this happens


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## Leo (12 Jan 2018)

moonalisza30 said:


> They are saying maybe someone used my signature on bk of the cheque and somehow cashed it out in some small shop where they didn' notice that it's from irish water.



There's a big blue logo in the top left corner, it's hard to miss that they're from IW. Even if a shop honoured it, for the cheque itself to be recorded as cashed, a bank would have to accept it, right?


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## moonalisza30 (14 Jan 2018)

Yes it should but I have no more information as all irish water is saying that they are investigating the matter. Time goes but they not giving me new check or more detail on situation


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## DirectDevil (19 Jan 2018)

Here is how I would look at it ;

It is of no interest to you what Irish Water's fraud team are doing.

You notified IW of the change of address which they seem to have amended correctly on their records.
They subsequently issued the cheque to a wrong address. (They must have generated the cheque address from some other data file.)
None of this is your fault. 

*Why* are you supposed to await the pleasure of their fraud team ? *What* has to happen to eventually persuade them to issue your refund ? These are matters to which you are a stranger. You are owed the money and are entitled to it *now*.

IW has two regulators. The relevant one here seems to be the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities. Link : https://www.cru.ie/
I would set IW a time limit of 10 days within which to have your cheque delivered or you will make a complaint to CRU.


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## llgon (19 Jan 2018)

DirectDevil, 
I agree with almost all of your post and think the OP should lodge a written complaint with Irish Water. However, there is no point giving them a 10 day time limit. The CRU will give them two months to respond to the complaint and would be unlikely to deal with it before that.


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