[Garrison]

I was incorrectly paid a 2-part bursary total of £1384 to my bank account in febuary and march 2012 from a university that I am not attending.

But I only just found out about this a week ago; with a letter from the university itself kindly asking for the money to be paid back. The letter does not say that it is mandatory that the money must be repaid, and since this was such a long time ago I am wondering if there is anything that prevents me from keeping the bursary, or any reason why I should not pay back the money..?

The bursary itself was from leicester university.

[letsdothetimewarpagain]

Surely you'd have noticed £1384 entering your account? Oo

Yes they do have to be paid back if you didn't attend.

[Garrison]

(Original post by letsdothetimewarpagain)
Surely you'd have noticed £1384 entering your account? Oo

Yes they do have to be paid back if you didn't attend.

As I said, it was in two payments, besides having a job and monthly maintenance grants, and having my bank statements not delivered to my own address I did not notice it.

Do you have any legal citations requiring me to pay it back? I'm not trying to sound stingy here, but it is a lot of money for me to suddenly "give back"

[PhoenixFortune]

(Original post by Garrison)
As I said, it was in two payments, besides having a job and monthly maintenance grants, and having my bank statements not delivered to my own address I did not notice it.

Do you have any legal citations requiring me to pay it back? I'm not trying to sound stingy here, but it is a lot of money for me to suddenly "give back"

Are you saying you spent this bursary? Two payments of £650 odd still seems like a lot of money not to notice...

If you don't pay it back, they will say you are stealing the money, as you are now aware that you were never entitled to it, and any action on your part to keep it would be seen as stealing/defrauding. It sounds dramatic, but they will get the money back somehow, even if you refuse to pay up.

[acedlol]

Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?

[Garrison]

(Original post by PhoenixFortune)
Are you saying you spent this bursary? Two payments of £650 odd still seems like a lot of money not to notice...

If you don't pay it back, they will say you are stealing the money, as you are now aware that you were never entitled to it, and any action on your part to keep it would be seen as stealing/defrauding. It sounds dramatic, but they will get the money back somehow, even if you refuse to pay up.

As I said I was never aware the money was embedded into my bank account, I only remove money from my debit account to pay for food, clothing and the bare minimum that I need to live on, I maybe check my bank balance once every 3 months at most, I have no reason to lie about ignorance of recieving this money, which I imagine some people are thinking. If I recieve any claims as "stealing" or "fraud" (despite the fact I do not even attend this university, have not had any contact with them since as far back as september, and have paid my tutition fees to a different university already) then of course I will forfeit the payment as requested.

[letsdothetimewarpagain]

(Original post by Garrison)
As I said I was never aware the money was embedded into my bank account, I only remove money from my debit account to pay for food, clothing and the bare minimum that I need to live on, I maybe check my bank balance once every 3 months at most, I have no reason to lie about ignorance of recieving this money, which I imagine some people are thinking. If I recieve any claims as "stealing" or "fraud" (despite the fact I do not even attend this university, have not had any contact with them since as far back as september, and have paid my tutition fees to a different university already) then of course I will forfeit the payment as requested.

if all you've been doing is saving it then why not just pay it back straight off? Saves faffing around and if it wasn't yours in the first place it won't make that much difference.

[PhoenixFortune]

(Original post by letsdothetimewarpagain)
if all you've been doing is saving it then why not just pay it back straight off? Saves faffing around and if it wasn't yours in the first place it won't make that much difference.

This. OP, if you still have the money in your account, which you can easily pay straight back, I don't see a problem...

[Xæthon]

(Original post by Garrison)
As I said I was never aware the money was embedded into my bank account, I only remove money from my debit account to pay for food, clothing and the bare minimum that I need to live on, I maybe check my bank balance once every 3 months at most, I have no reason to lie about ignorance of recieving this money, which I imagine some people are thinking. If I recieve any claims as "stealing" or "fraud" (despite the fact I do not even attend this university, have not had any contact with them since as far back as september, and have paid my tutition fees to a different university already) then of course I will forfeit the payment as requested.

As PhoenixFortune has said, you can be taken to court for theft. Just because they've made a mistake doesn't mean you get to keep the money, as you now know of it and are intending to keep it.