Cheques sent to the council 'have gone missing' in alleged business rate fraud

AW
1 Aug 2014
Lib Dem logo bird projected on blockwork
Business Rates are being stolen - make sure your write the borough's name in full when writing cheques.

CHEQUES sent to the council to pay for business rates 'have gone missing' with claims they are being fraudulently cashed.

Business owners raised concerns after receiving reminders from the Royal Borough to pay the tax, despite having already posted their cheques.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Borough told The Observer: "We can confirm that some cheques sent to the borough have gone missing and that the police are investigating the matter. Until police have completed their enquiries we are not in a position to comment further."

The issue was raised at a Windsor Chamber of Commerce meeting at Royal Windsor Racecourse, in Maidenhead Road, on Monday. Members said it is believed business owners have addressed their cheques to 'RBWM' instead of writing the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in full enabling the cheques to be cashed by someone else.

The chamber is urging ratepayers to write the council's name out in full when writing out cheques.

Janet Campbell, owner of Inspirations gift shop, in Sunninghill High Street, had a cheque for £332 go missing.

She said: "What seems to be happening is that I sent a cheque on March 23 [for £329] for the first payments for the shop which went missing, but was not cashed.

"Last month on June 25, I sent July's payment [£332]. That went missing too and has been cashed. I have had to call the bank and checked with the council and they had not received it.
"I received a letter [from the council] saying that I had to pay and my account has been put on hold."

She added: "People sending cheques need to be warned that they need to pay it to the full name.

"Other people at the meeting said they had the same problem, and there are others with much larger cheques going missing. For people losing large amounts it is quite worrying."

 

Source:

  1. Royal Borough Observer - online

This website uses cookies

Like most websites, this site uses cookies. Some are required to make it work, while others are used for statistical or marketing purposes. If you choose not to allow cookies some features may not be available, such as content from other websites. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information.

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly.
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.
Marketing cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalized advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.