Warning on stolen bank cheques
Nothing's as safe as cash, unless of course it's a bank cheque - at least that's what businessman Murray Barker thought, until his bank cheque was dishonoured.
After having dealt with bank cheques for most of his life, Mr Barker had no qualms taking a National Australia Bank (NAB) cheque for $23,000 for his Harley motorbike.
Three weeks later he had lost his money and his old Harley.
"It was a fair dinkum bank cheque; it had the watermark in it," he said.
"I had a colleague with me who also checked it - he's dealt with bank cheques. It was a real bank cheque."
Courier Robert Hart also accepted an NAB cheque for $21,000 in exchange for his beloved Harley.
He says he did all the right checks, even noting driver's licences and addresses.
"Everyone thinks that they're 100 per cent perfect to take a bank cheque. It's as good as cash, if not better, because the banks tell you 'oh, it's so good...'" he said.
"I held it up and I looked at the watermarks in the bank cheque and everything ... and I was happy with the bank cheque."
But like Mr Barker, Mr Hart discovered three days after banking the cheque that he had been conned.
Not only were the buyers crooks with false IDs, the cheques had been stolen from the NAB and the $21,000 in his account had been taken back by the bank.
For weeks about 50 stolen bank cheques from two Sydney branches of the NAB have been circulating.
They have been exchanged for expensive sought-after goods, from hot-water systems and cars to lots of Harleys - but the bank failed to issue any public warnings.
Like the other victims, Gary Colligan had advertised his Harley in the classifieds.
Mr Colligan settled with an NAB cheque.
It was banked, cleared and the $25,000 even appeared in his account - but not for long.
"I had a phone call from the Commonwealth Bank fraud investigations, to which they said the cheque I had made out for the bike I was buying was no longer valid, that I had to return it to the bank," he said.
"The cheque that was banked on Tuesday was a fraud cheque."
It's hard to estimate how many people have been conned by these bank cheques.
Mr Colligan is one of six victims who have contacted us.
"I believe there's a lot of questions that I need answered in regard to that cheque and where it was stolen from and how it was stolen," he said.
"And also for the fact they hadn't let the general public know, which I think was pretty poor on the bank's behalf."
It's been a similar story for small business owners David and Kerry Linke; a month ago they sold 16 hot-water systems for more than $16,000 - money they have never seen.
"I feel deceived by the bank in such that no warnings were put out into the marketplace," Mr Linke said.
The NAB launched an internal investigation into the stolen cheques several weeks ago but issued no public announcement that may have warned of the scam.
Most of the victims still have not been contacted but in a statement issued today, the bank is now urging people to be wary of bank cheques from its Bondi and Riverwood branches in Sydney.
