Crow and Bird are two partners in a firm of solicitors which conducts its trust account at the principal branch of ABC Bank Ltd. Cheques drawn on the trust account require the signatures of both partners.
Crow and Bird sign a cheque and provided it to Sleight, their managing clerk, to send off to the supplier. The cheque has empty spaces before the words and amounts written on the cheque. After Crow and Bird signed the cheque, Sleight fraudulently amends the cheque by increasing the amount for which the cheque is drawn from $500.00 to $10,500 and also amends the name of the payee, from the word “CAS or bearer” (which is short for Computer Accounting Services) to the word “CASH or bearer”. The amendments are not obvious and look like they were written by the partners.

Which of the following is true?

A: ABC Bank is not liable for paying the cheque if partners were negligent.
B: The partners may recover from Computer Accounting Services.
C: The partners can only recover from Sleight.
D: ABC Bank must pay exemplary damages to the partners.
E: ABC Bank should bring criminal actions against Crow and Bird.