Simply I don't think there is a whole lot you can do, unless the amount is vast to cover the cost of legal fees. Was the amount under the cheque guarantee level ? These are dangerous times for trading so don't e surprised that it will not happen again.
The amount is almost €3000.
I spoke to a Solicitor who said it was 'Fraud'.
I then spoke to a detective who said that the bank would need to have written to him stating that 'he was not to issue any cheques' in order for a crime to have been committed.
I was always under the impression that's it's an offence to write/utter a cheque if there aren't adequate funds to cover it.
johnjoda ..... *snap*
When I lived in the UK we had the flatmate from hell who would go off and open a bank account and get a cheque book, then write cheques left right and centre which would bounce and when the bank got angsty, he would go off and open an account with another bank. After we threw him out, we ended up getting quite friendly with the debt collectors who used to call every week looking for him
In terms of the bank's responsibility, unless you can in someway prove that the bank did not follow it's proper account opening procedures, it's doubtful that you would have any case against them.
Hate to say it, but given goods out to a customer who only pays be cheque is risky, as you have little comeback if the cheque bounces and the customer is a chancer as seems to be the case here.
Have you tried approaching the customer in question and advising him that you will be setting debt collectors on him? A scare might work
My experience of the Gardai are that they are not interested in cheque fraud such as this as it is almost impossible to prove that the customer did not know the funds were in the account or deliberatley opened up and operated and account in the manner described.
I think it would be hard to make a case for fraud stick if you are the only person affected. The issuer of the cheque might say that he intended to lodge money to cover the cheque, but that something, such as a business difficulty, prevented him.
The bank has no responsibility to you.
In general, matters like this are more for civil law than for criminal law. The District Court can deal with claims of up to €6348. So you can sue the issuer of the cheque by bringing him to the District Court. Because of the special legal status of cheques, if you turn up in court with a dishonoured cheque as your evidence, the case is almost certainly going to be a walkover.
It's looking like that will be my only recourse.
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