My bank account seems to be getting bigger and bigger even though I’m not paying anything into it! According to my bank statement it looks as though I’m still being paid by the firm I left three months ago. If I use this money can I be charged with theft? What’s the legal position?
Even though the money is in your bank account it doesn’t belong to you, and your former employers are entitled to ask you to return it to them: you will still be liable even if you spend it in the meantime. I suggest you offer to pay it back at so much a month. It is theft to hold on to somebody else’s property when you’ve no intention of giving it back, but it’s most unlikely the police would become involved in an accounting error.