"You broke the law, but I'll ignore that if you let me keep the money you accidentally overpaid me"?
That's extortion and he needs to get better legal advice.
In general if someone makes an accidental overpayment to you it's not your money. Especially if you do not promptly let them know about it.
I suspect he's going to have to give them the money back. And he's going to have to forfeit any interest he earned on that money. And then he's going to have to pursue any other dispute separately.
The stuff about allowing other people to swipe him in and out of the building was really stupid: he shouldn't have let that happen and he certainly shouldn't be writing it in a letter of dispute.
He does have my sympathy though - working for bad bosses sucks.
That is absolutely not what I am saying. I have made it abundantly clear that I want to repay the money - they have just as yet been unable to provide me with a reasonable way to repay.
The swipe card system was not used to pay me - it was simply the only evidence I could get of my hours at such a late date.
The issue here is that the company behaves illegally and immorally which can not be tolerated.
I think I'd have replied with something like:
"Thank you for taking responsibility and beginning to compensate me for the extra time I worked for your company. The balance that is owed is $AMOUNT. If you would like to contest this amount, please provide a detailed accounting of your calculations. Otherwise, I will appreciate knowing your intended payment schedule.
Again, thank you for acknowledging the former shortcomings with regards to salary and pay.
--Former Employee"
I would honestly have steered the correspondence in this direction. Kinda saying "yes, the money you sent is MINE" without saying it directly.
"I suspect he's going to have to give them the money back."
In the US, if two parties owe each other money, it can sometimes be handled as a suit and counter-suit. I.e. one case for both debts. At the end, a balance might be calculated in favor of one party. (Larger debt minus smaller debt.)
This says nothing about the present case though, particularly given differences between jurisdictions. It's just a general observation about these types of cases.
I do not believe there is any obligation to pay back accidentally overpaid sums in the UK. I base this on the fact that if you receive money from some-one accidentally (they got the account number wrong for example) you are under no legal obligation to pay it back (although the bank will ring you asking you to).
I don't know if it's different with overpaid money during employment however I doubt it is.
It's not your money. Make efforts to give it back. Don't spend it. Don't put it in a high interest account. Don't use it to get access to other stuff (while leaving the cash there). Even getting the answer "yes" after asking "Is this really my money" doesn't mean it is your money; you'll still have to pay it back. You're just less likely to go to jail.
Whether it's theft or not comes down to whether or not you honestly believe the money is yours. The reference to the size of the amount is there because the larger the sum, the less likely it is that someone could reasonably believe the money was theirs.
In the UK (and other common law countries), there's a legal principle called estoppel which often operates in mistaken payment situations. Basically, if the court decided that even if the OP did in fact spend the money in the honest belief that it was his, Codemasters would be entitled to recover the money unless they are "estopped" by reason of the fact that he had significantly changed his position in response to the receipt of the money.
It's ultimately meant to be a "fairness" test - if you had £10,000 in your account and someone mistakenly paid you £100, even if you spent that £100 in the belief it was yours, it's hardly like your financial position has been dramatically changed in reliance on that £100 payment. Therefore, you're likely liable to pay the £100 back.
However, the situation at hand seems to be more in favour of the recipient - sounds like he did rely on the additional money by paying back some debt, and that could mean that Codemasters can't get it back (or, perhaps, only get a portion of it back).
That's extortion and he needs to get better legal advice.
In general if someone makes an accidental overpayment to you it's not your money. Especially if you do not promptly let them know about it.
I suspect he's going to have to give them the money back. And he's going to have to forfeit any interest he earned on that money. And then he's going to have to pursue any other dispute separately.
The stuff about allowing other people to swipe him in and out of the building was really stupid: he shouldn't have let that happen and he certainly shouldn't be writing it in a letter of dispute.
He does have my sympathy though - working for bad bosses sucks.