Money laundering?

Today I went to my local bank branch and drew out some money from the ATM. I put some into another account at the counter and kept £20 to buy some paint. When I got to the counter (usual queue with one teller until another appeared!) the woman clerk took my money and began shuffling the notes around rather like Paul Daniels on Jack Daniels! I looked on curiously and she eventually said "some of these are old notes" as if to hint that I was passing on duff money. "Well, I got them out of the machine" I said. "They shouldn't be in there!" she said. "There are a lot of shouldn'ts these days" I helpfully suggested.

When I got to the DIY store I picked up the paint I wanted and went to the till. The woman took the £20 and put it under an ultra-scan (the thing with a purple light) and muttered " I don't like this - it doesn't look real." "Well I've just got it from the bank" I said. She then went into some amateur dramatic routine, first putting it up to the natural light, then back to the scanner. Then she went off to the manager, who, some little while later gave the rocket-science opinion that it was duff! I took the note back and walked out.

I don't blame the store, although they do seem to like to make out that they are the experts. However, the bank, who should be the experts are spewing out old notes and possibly duff notes from their ATMs. As I have to declare all manner of secrets to say I'm NOT a money launderer under government regulations I'd dearly like to know what the banks do to check their product (ie BANK NOTES!!!!)

Money laundering works both ways and stopping it should be a mutal arrangement!

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