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Debt collection agencies feed on live flesh. In these dark times there must be a surplus of legitimate prey to nourish them, but they will swoop just as greedily on unfortunates who happen to share a name or an ex-address of a defaulter. And once they have sunk their teeth into you, it is frighteningly hard to break free, as Gareth Stanton has spent five years discovering. The Lowell Group is convinced that he owes Barclays Bank a large sum of money and sends him regular letters demanding it. The fact that Stanton has never banked with Barclays and has spent many years telling them so does not abash them in the slightest. Occasionally, catlike, they will allow him a few months' breather, then pounce again. Now other debt collectors have begun aggressively prowling. "I receive continuous phone calls," he says, "and it's obvious that the staff regard me as some sort of criminal."
Debt collection agencies are licensed and regulated by the Office of Fair Trading, which last year condemned an unnamed number of them for unfair practices, including pursuing innocent victims and failing to investigate disputed cases. A common cause is sloppy data checking when the companies purchase debts. Stanton's case, though, is more sinister. Lowell, which, having ignored Stanton for five years, gets back to me within a week, explains that the three debts it purchased were in the name of a Gareth Stanton who shared the same birth date as our reader and lived a mile from him. The obvious conclusion is that he is a victim of identity fraud.
Lowell, mortified that it did not investigate Stanton's protests earlier, has offered to help cleanse his name by contacting the three credit bureaux and the police. It will also pay him compensation. Anyone wrongly hounded by debt collectors can now complain to the Financial Services Authority. Citizens Advice Bureaux will also take up cases.
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