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Hi everyone,
At the beginning of October, 2022 I was on Facebook marketplace looking for driveway blocks. I found someone who was selling them and were able to deliver the same week. This person sent an invoice, well just his ltd company name and bank details where to transfer the money, but as it was local we decided to pay in cash just in case it was a scam. (Now wish we would have done bank transfer as the bank would have been able to take the money back possibly). So we went to the yard and paid money to him. Anyways the day for delivery come and he was nowhere to be seen. A lot of promising that he was coming the following day and then its definitely going to be Monday and so on. He then promised to refund us but it was the same thing, a lot of promises but no action. I followed CAB advice and sent him several registered letters, the last one being letter before court action. Didn't receive any response from him.
So now I am wondering if:
1) we have any chance of taking him to small claims court and winning it seeing as we paid cash.
2) I've read somewhere it is possible to put a claim against person directly instead of a limited company and for the life of me I can not seem to find this anywhere.
3) is it reasonable to add cost of postage for the letters that were sent to him and also wages for 1 day as he knew we had someone coming the following day to lay the blocks
And lastly, the best way to stop this person trading completely. I have reported him to action fraud but they said they have no line of enquiry and trading standards can't stop him trading. He lives locally to us and since found out that there a loads of people who suffered losses, they either bought something from him, paid the money and didn't receive products or as he is a builder he took on a job, took either deposit and disappeared or never finished the job. Also he has served some time in prison for fraud, although it was Travis Perkins that were scammed by him so probably they have more money to spend on either building a case or putting more pressure on authorities. Also not sure if this makes any difference but when he was first exposed for fraud he was using a different name to the one he is using now, as I did have a quick google search and nothing come up before we paid the money.
Thank you so much for reading to the end and any advice given.
At the beginning of October, 2022 I was on Facebook marketplace looking for driveway blocks. I found someone who was selling them and were able to deliver the same week. This person sent an invoice, well just his ltd company name and bank details where to transfer the money, but as it was local we decided to pay in cash just in case it was a scam. (Now wish we would have done bank transfer as the bank would have been able to take the money back possibly). So we went to the yard and paid money to him. Anyways the day for delivery come and he was nowhere to be seen. A lot of promising that he was coming the following day and then its definitely going to be Monday and so on. He then promised to refund us but it was the same thing, a lot of promises but no action. I followed CAB advice and sent him several registered letters, the last one being letter before court action. Didn't receive any response from him.
So now I am wondering if:
1) we have any chance of taking him to small claims court and winning it seeing as we paid cash.
2) I've read somewhere it is possible to put a claim against person directly instead of a limited company and for the life of me I can not seem to find this anywhere.
3) is it reasonable to add cost of postage for the letters that were sent to him and also wages for 1 day as he knew we had someone coming the following day to lay the blocks
And lastly, the best way to stop this person trading completely. I have reported him to action fraud but they said they have no line of enquiry and trading standards can't stop him trading. He lives locally to us and since found out that there a loads of people who suffered losses, they either bought something from him, paid the money and didn't receive products or as he is a builder he took on a job, took either deposit and disappeared or never finished the job. Also he has served some time in prison for fraud, although it was Travis Perkins that were scammed by him so probably they have more money to spend on either building a case or putting more pressure on authorities. Also not sure if this makes any difference but when he was first exposed for fraud he was using a different name to the one he is using now, as I did have a quick google search and nothing come up before we paid the money.
Thank you so much for reading to the end and any advice given.
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