Cashed a check twice

Question

I recently had the stupidest idea to change my direct deposit from Wells Fargo to Bank of America (my BOFA account is about 6 months old).

Since I changed it 2 weeks in advance I was shocked when I received a check for payday. Plus I need to return back $100 to a co-worker. A co-worker worker said that how he deposits his check with BOFA. I Mobile deposited the check and was expecting some part to be available.

I got a message saying that full balance would be available on Friday, I deposited the Check on Wednesday morning around 9AM. Then Friday came and it said that would be available the Thursday next. By then I was very mad rent was coming up so I wanted to canceled my account, I even set an appointment to cancel but I couldn't.

I researched online and by what saw it seemed more likely they'll denied the check or something! I even was charged a $2 return posted check fee. So went to place I thought was a Western Union that I frequently do money transfers with. It turns out they are a check cashing place that processes Western Union. I cashed the check there.

So today at 4pm almost 2 weeks later I received a call from HR saying that I cashed my check twice and they will sue me. I don't know why they didn't call me first. Upon checking my account BOFA cleared it. So I explained what had happened and was advised to pay it fast. Because it was late and Wells Fargo still have me at $600 limit I scraped around my other accounts and came up with $740. Still owe about $630 which I will be pay the next day. But the teller told me she'll tell her manager and the may file a police report.

My question is:

1. What can I do to assure them that I didn't do it purposely and not to press charges?
2. Since I won't cancel due to not wanting seem fishy to my employer. Do I need to inform BOFA of this accident. I don't want any surprises later.
3. Will I be arrested?
4. Should I send HR the receipts as proof that I handled that situation?
5. I feel ashamed how do I move on from this? The general manager already sent email to retrain all employees on check frauds.

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Answer 1

There's absolutely no reason for your employer to sue. You didn't intend to defraud your company or the bank and you're perfectly willing to return the extra money that isn't yours. You shouldn't be arrested - crimes generally require some sort of intent to commit a crime, and you had good reason to believe that you were honestly getting the money you earned and nothing more.

Return all the money ASAP, explain the situation to the bank and your employer, and you should be fine legally. Your company threatening to sue is just them sabre rattling at you to scare you into giving back the money faster, and the bank saying they may file a police report is them covering their ass (and a police report is probably warranted so that there's a record of what happened, it's not the same as them pressing charges).

As for moving on - you made an honest mistake in a confusing situation, in the grand scheme of things a few hundred dollars isn't much, the fact that you're so stressed about it is a sign that you're probably a generally honest and reliable person.