A silly question ... what happens to orders when they are cashed and removed from an order book. How long are they preserved and where?

I need to prove that a particular order was cashed by a third party on a client's behalf. Is there any other way to do this besides getting hold of the original order?

I believe that cashed orders go to an office in Belfast. I don't think they're kept for very long, probably no more than a few months, and it may be only for a very short period. I've seen a number of recent fraud investigations where the claimant has allegedly been falsely claiming for several years. The fruad officers have only produced two or three giros or orders as evidence that the claimant has received benefit, none of them going back more than 6 months. Although they only ever seem to prosecute for two or three sample offences, it would seem to me that if they had the orders going back years, it would be sensible to choose offences spread throughout the period of the alleged fraud.

I don't think that they do much more than check that orders/giros are for the correct amount and have not been obviously tampered with, befoire destroying them. If you don't raise the issue and ask them to produce the order very quickly it's probably too late.t

Older paid orders are available but as they are stored on microfiche the quality is often poor.

Not sure whether it would make a difference to your case but obtaining copies can often take up to 13 weeks.

That's interesting ... I've spoken to two people this morning and got slightly different answers - one (IS) said that they were definitely destroyed after 6 months and there would be no record as they were not scanned and the other (DLA) that we should send in a request and they would have a look for us.

It sounds as if this is something you've been through before? If so, did you contact the office in Northern Ireland direct or go through your local office?

Thank-you very much for your help.

Thanks for this!