Santander has issued a warning to 75,000 customers after they were paid salaries TWICE four years ago. On Christmas Day three years ago in 2021, around 75,000 customers were accidentally paid twice by the bank in a major blunder.
Around £130million was paid twice from 2,000 business accounts, although Santander footed the bill for the second payments. The bank tried to recoup the payments at the time, but most customers’ payments were sent to rival bank accounts.
Some banks were reluctant to return the money where customers may have been pushed into their overdraft as a result. A spokesperson for Santander told The Sun: “We worked collaboratively with recipient banks immediately after the issue occurred in order to recover a majority of the funds, but some recovery activities remain in progress.”
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About 75,000 people and companies in receipt of normal one-off or regular payments from 2,000 businesses with accounts at Santander were inadvertently paid a second time. Those finding an unexpected Christmas bonus in their accounts included employees of the businesses and their suppliers.
The second payment was made from Santander’s own reserves, leaving the bank significantly out of pocket, but its own customers unaffected. In an update, the high street bank says it is still trying to claw back the cash from those paid.
Even though the windfall was Santander’s mistake, it is illegal for customers to keep the wrongly accredited money and if they spend it they face being charged with ‘retaining wrongful credit’ under the Theft Act 1968.
The maximum sentence is 10 years in prison. But although those banks are able to take back money that was incorrectly paid into its customers’ accounts, they fear some may have already spent it.
Recovering the money will not be simple because it has gone to the accounts of customers of dozens of other banks, which are now being asked to retrieve the money on Santander’s behalf.