Money was paid into my account in error but before I was informed it was used to pay direct debits etc. Do I have to pay it back ?

Hi troyte and welcome to the forum.

The situation is a tad unclear here ... who actually made these payments into your account on behalf of your brother and what were the payments for? I assume that you gave permission for your account to receive such third party payments? And was the bank fully aware that these were third party payments and did they agree to them if they were?

I can only assume that the bank assumed this was your money and paid your direct debits from them .. is that correct?

And when you say "Also it seems they had deducted monies from previous payments that they shouldn't have" ... what exactly are these deductions and were they made by your bank and why?

I can only suggest that it is up to you to maintain your account in good order and things have happened here that perhaps have failed to oversee and unless the bank has some proven culpability here, I can only assume the debt is yours and needs to be discussed with the bank as to what you can or cannot currently do in repayment.

Hi again troyte ... thank you for the further info. Alas I can only say that since the credits were legitimately paid into your account ( although as you say there were reduced payments at times ), the bank appears to have acted correctly. Since your building company has ceased trading, it's going to be difficult to deal with getting money back from previous customers. You do not say how much debt is involved here but if it is substantial then perhaps you should seek advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau who will refer you to their own business debt line contacts.

I assume that you didn't trade as a limited company that ceased trading without assets? And was the bank account concerned a business or personal account?

I would imagine that despite the company having ceased trading ( I assume that it was you, trading as something rather than a limited company ), then the debt was very much a personal debt even though it was as a result of business cashflow. At a ?600 debt it would be better to deal with that rather than ignore it,even if only nominally for now thus avoiding rip off additional charges.