My local fish and chip shop sold me a cheap substitute for cod – can I get my money back? DEAN DUNHAM

I’m sure our local fish and chip shop sells cheap substitutes for cod and haddock – how can I get my money back?

R. R., Hastings.

Dean Dunham replies: Unfortunately this complaint is not unusual and is a common problem up and down the country.

A study in 2019 of fish and chip shops in the South-East found that a significant percentage of meat being sold was ‘shark’.

Thankfully, this is contrary to the law and from a criminal perspective is fraud. This means chip shop owners who engage in such dodgy practices could end up going to prison.

It also breaches civil law. Here, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods must be ‘as described’ or, as I often say, ‘goods must do or match what it says on the tin’.

So if a chip shop advertises fish as being haddock but, in fact, unbeknown to you, sells a cheaper substitute, it is a clear breach of the Consumer Rights Act and in these circumstances you will be entitled to a remedy.

Technically, the remedy you are entitled to depends on the amount of time that has elapsed since you purchased the fish – within 30 days you can demand a refund. After that time the fish and chip shop would be entitled to offer you a replacement or refund and, importantly, is allowed to decide which one.

However, in reality, in circumstances like this where you have been blatantly misled (I would even go so far as describing it as conned) my view is you are entitled to simply demand a refund. It would be unreasonable to expect you as the consumer to trust that the replacement fish is genuinely as described, after all.

There is one final, important point to consider. If you raise the issue with your chip shop either within 30 days of purchase or after six months, you will have the burden of proving that the fish was a substitute. This could be difficult as you will no longer have the ‘actual’ fish in question (unless you kept it, of course!).

In these circumstances, my advice is to report the matter to the trading standards office, local to the fish and chip shop, as it will no doubt investigate and hopefully obtain the evidence you need to get your refund.

I fell for an HMRC scam and lost almost £1,000 

I fell for an HMRC scam in January and transferred £960 to fraudsters. I reported it to my bank but it won’t help as it says I was ‘grossly negligent’ to transfer the money. What should I do?

B. M., via email.

Dean Dunham replies: This type of scam is known as an Authorised Push Payment (or APP) scam or bank transfer scam.

Thanks to new rules introduced in October 2024 (called the APP fraud reimbursement requirement), banks now have a stringent set of rules they must follow. In most cases they have to reimburse customers who have fallen victim to a bank transfer scam up to a limit of £85,000.

However, as always, these rules come with restrictions – such as the fact you must notify your bank within 13 months of the scam. The banks have some ace cards they can use to deny your claim, too. One of these is where they consider you have been ‘grossly negligent’, which is one of the most common reasons banks cite for denying these claims.

However, the Financial Ombudsman has made clear that it will overturn a bank’s decision to deny claims where it says the customer has been grossly negligent unless the bank can prove a ‘significant degree of carelessness’.

So, in the first instance, go back to your bank and dispute the grossly negligent decision and ask what evidence it has to back up this allegation. If you are not satisfied with the response, make a claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service (financial-ombudsman.org.uk).

Finally, let me take this opportunity to highlight a new scam-busting tool. Ask Silver (ask-silver.com) uses AI technology to review and assess if the likes of letters, emails, texts and websites are genuine. It’s free to use and is accessed simply by sending a photograph or screenshot of the communication or website you are unsure about to a WhatsApp number.