fb

Would you accept this money?

Would you accept this money?

Now this is an unusual one. It involves an accountant that wouldn’t accept money…

Baverstocks Accountants is a small firm of accountants in the UK that recently fell out with one of their clients.

Their client, a Mr Fitzpatrick, got into a dispute with the accountants and withdrew his business from them with an outstanding debt of £804.

The (ex) client apparently wasn’t overly happy with things and decided to settle his debt by payment in cash. Now this wasn’t 80 crisp £10 notes together with four pound coins. No, he decided to pay his £804 by dropping off five big boxes full of 1p and 2p coins.

I don’t know the exact split of coins but if we assume that the £804 was settled by way of 2p coins this meant that there were over 40,000 coins in the five crates!

Now whilst the disgruntled client was no doubt feeling very pleased with himself that he had settled the debt and left a mess of thousands of coins at the accountants, the accountants decided not to take this sitting down.

As a result, they took Mr Fitzpatrick to court and sued him, arguing that it was illegal to pay off debts higher than £10 with coins.

The accountants were successful and the judge ruled in their favour.

Apparently, under the Coinage Act 1971 (no, I didn’t realise that existed either), copper coins (1p and 2p coins) are only legal tender up to the value of 20 pence, coins worth up to 10p can only be used for payments up to £5 and coins worth more than 10p can only be used payments up to £10.

The end result is that whilst the unhappy client probably felt quite pleased with himself when he dropped off the thousands of coins, he has now been told by a judge that he has to settle the debt correctly (and collected the coins…)

Share this entry

Recent articles

View All Articles
Ghosting the Algorithm: have dating apps lost their spark?
Nov 28, 2024
Title
Ghosting the Algorithm: have dating apps lost their spark?
Excerpt

In the digital age, anyone looking for romance would know about dating apps. Platforms like Tinder revolutionised how […]

Fake trades but real consequences
Nov 27, 2024
Title
Fake trades but real consequences
Excerpt

Macquarie Bank’s London branch was recently fined £13 million after a trader created fake trades to hide losses. […]

Splash out on a new purchase
Nov 25, 2024
Title
Splash out on a new purchase
Excerpt

The Swedish furniture giant IKEA often comes up with innovative advertising ideas. One of those was when they […]

Are you an adult or a kid (or both)?
Nov 19, 2024
Title
Are you an adult or a kid (or both)?
Excerpt

When was the last time you were in a toy shop or were browsing for toys online? If […]

Who invented double-entry bookkeeping?
Nov 12, 2024
Title
Who invented double-entry bookkeeping?
Excerpt

Double entry bookkeeping – for anyone who has studied accounting those 3 words may bring back fond (or […]

Not the best way to resign…
Nov 08, 2024
Title
Not the best way to resign…
Excerpt

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of someone resigning from their job? Perhaps […]

Black Friday: Business Impacts and Insights
Nov 05, 2024
Title
Black Friday: Business Impacts and Insights
Excerpt

It’s November and if you’re planning on buying anything this month, you’re going to see the words “Black […]

Technical Skills vs Human Skills…
Nov 01, 2024
Title
Technical Skills vs Human Skills…
Excerpt

So, what do you think is more important in today’s business environment – technical or human skills? Whilst […]