Contracts of employment: Overpayment of wages

Where an employer has mistakenly overpaid an employee, the money can be recovered if it was paid because of a mistake of fact. However in a warning to employers operating computerised payment systems, the Court of Appeal in The County Council of Avon v Howlett 21.12.82 Court of Appeal holds that the defence of estoppel may operate to prevent recovery of all the money even if the employee has spent only some of it.