My friend in trouble

[brokenmould1]

Hi All, I am a Newbie. Can anyone please help me help my friend who has been sent Court documents by Marlin/Mortimer Clarke for a debt of £1,500. Five and a half years ago her account with HSBC was raided fraudulently to the tune of £600. She complained and the money was returned 2 hours later. She thought that was the end of it (she is a young Asian Mum living alone on benefits with 4 children and did not understand fully what was happening). Two months later she is told by the bank that they believed her pin number must have been compromised and that she must pay it all back. Frightened, she agreed to ay back what she could, but had many problems and the repayments became too much. She told the bank she could not afford to pay. They said they would issue further adjusted repayment terms. She did not hear any more about this till a week ago when Mortimer Clark said she will go to court if she does not pay back a sum of (now) £1500. As I said she is on benefits and cannot afford to repay this. Should she offer to pay £4 per month - actually more than she can afford - or say 'take me to court' and see if a judge will consider she is in enough difficulty with 2 of her children in poor health and only public money to live on? I don't think she could deal with the stress of a court appearance or a proper legal sounding defence. Considering that she did not take this money and a fraud was committed in the first place, I think it is awful that she had to pay it back at all. And, why £1500 and not the original £600. Could they reduce this? The immorality of demanding repayment of this when she has been awarded a pittance by the state to live on seems disgraceful to me. No-one has contacted her since 5 years ago till now. What should she do? I don't know how to help her. Please help.

[PlanB]

Re: My friend in trouble

Hello brokenmould1

Your friend has got lots of real valid issues to raise here but it's the weekend so you may not get too many replies. Keep checking in with us though because we will have lots of questions to ask before deciding the best way forward for you friend

[PlanB]

Re: My friend in trouble

Cann anyone please help me help my friend who has been sent Court documents by Marlin/Mortimer Clarke for a debt of £1,500.

A quick question, when did your friend receive the court summons? You only have 14 days plus service time to reply onine. We may be able to help with the necessary response

[FlamingParrot]

Re: My friend in trouble

My suggestion would be for her to acknowledge the claim online and tick the box saying she intends to defend, which should give her a total of 28 days to start with.

There are quite a few issues here but the court claim has to be dealt with in the first place, to avoid default judgment. :scared:

When someone is reliant on benefits or has an income at a similar level, it is customary to pay just £1/month and even a judge wouldn't make someone pay what they can't afford, there are people with CCJs paying just that amount. Ideally though, a CCJ should be avoided, especially in view of the history of this account.

Presumably it was an overdraft on a current account. I would day she should be able to request information under CPR to find out how the balance came to be £1500 from an initial £600… :confused2: Probably all charges! :rant:

[brokenmould1]

Re: My friend in trouble

Thank you so very much for such quick replies! You are all so brilliant! I think I will advise her just to pay £1 per month. Let the beggars wait! This debt has been sold on twice! The bank knew she was a British Asian girl in trouble enough though never in debt till this. I am also going to email the Managing director of HSBC to introduce him to the immorality of ding this to someone with no protector and little knowledge of these pernicious systems with no heart. Thank you so much. What a brilliant web site.

[labman]

Re: My friend in trouble

Tell her to complete a good income / expenditure form as well to prove £1 is all she can afford. Here's a good one:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/en...dget-sheet.pdf

[FlamingParrot]

Re: My friend in trouble

Thank you so very much for such quick replies! You are all so brilliant! I think I will advise her just to pay £1 per month. Let the beggars wait! This debt has been sold on twice! The bank knew she was a British Asian girl in trouble enough though never in debt till this. I am also going to email the Managing director of HSBC to introduce him to the immorality of ding this to someone with no protector and little knowledge of these pernicious systems with no heart. Thank you so much. What a brilliant web site.

Tell her to complete a good income / expenditure form as well to prove £1 is all she can afford. Here's a good one:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/en...dget-sheet.pdf

The issue here is that she's already got a court claim and if nothing is done about the claim, default judgment will be obtained for the full amount claimed, even when it looks like this isn't really her debt, as not only was there fraud involved, but the sum was originally nearly a third of the amount claimed. I would say she should defend on those basis, this isn't really her debt, so there's no reason she should have a CCJ against her for something she didn't even borrow in the first place!