Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k custs

[Amethyst]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Previous determinations by OFT

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

The Law Society are calling for a criminal investigation http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/pr...tion-of-wonga/

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/pr...ify-law-firms/

And it looks like they might have one http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28057143

[Guest]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

The Law Society are calling for a criminal investigation http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/pr...tion-of-wonga/

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/pr...ify-law-firms/

And it looks like they might have one http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28057143

Excellent

The Law Society has now called on police to look at whether the company committed an offence of obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and blackmail, as well as offences under the Solicitors Act.

[PAWS]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

The Society said the payday lender's actions could have amounted to blackmail and deception.
Very interesting especially as 'Blackmail' seems to be a tactic of many OLs and DCAs. Fascinating stuff in the previous determinations by OFT that Amethyst posted. The big problem is that many of these companies break the OFT rules and get away with it. Can it possibly be true that someone at the CoL police might grow a pair and pursue this? Excellent; can’t wait to see how it turns out. :mod:

[Guest]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

It seems pretty damming of the OFT and the FCA that a transgression as severe as this cannot be handled by the department assigned to protect the consume and instead has to be handed over to the police.

Is it true then that any actions reported to the OFT cannot be investigated by the FCA, i heard this mentioned but thought it was an error.
If so why cannot the complaint just be re applied to the FCA as a new case since no action was obviously taken and no investigation made previously.

[Wombats]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

This makes for interesting reading:

http://fshandbook.info/FS/html/FCA

This bit is particularly interesting:

http://fshandbook.info/FS/html/FCA/DEPP/6/5A

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

''Initially it seemed Wonga might escape a police investigation, but amid intense pressure for action – including from the head of the Law Society, Desmond Hudson, who said Wonga's "dishonest activity" could amount to blackmail and deception – the force said it is now reassessing the case for an investigation.

In a statement issued late on Friday, it said: "Now the regulator's investigation has concluded, and a compensation agreement has been reached with Wonga, the City of London police will reassess whether a criminal investigation is now appropriate."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/...-firms-letters

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

MSE now looking at other companies apart from Wonga.

--> Is it just Wonga? Send us your debt demands from fake lawyers

Now turns out from Paul Lewis on BBC that the Wonga letters did say at the bottom in tiny letters that it was Wonga trading as Barker and Lowe.

Now if that is out of order according to the FCA, then so is....

example:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...74&postcount=5

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=20ivy9y&s=8

Clearly designed to give the impression to those that don't notice the small print at the bottom that it is a law firm writing.

So I think this could quite possibly extended to all the "trading style" etc law firms that actually are not such thing.

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

He said the letter said the fake solicitors were ''instructed by Wonga'' lol.

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Their mate at the next desk down said, "oi you, write a letter."

[Amethyst]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Damn you can't watch BBC breakfast on watch again (its not often you need to )

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

You could always watch Martin Lewis going off on one instead http://www.itv.com/thismorning/hot-t...-wonga-letters

[meellis]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

All this reminds me of a serious gripe I do have. It seems the further up the food chain and the more you can charge the less liability you have to cover. I remember when I had a tax investigation, the first thing my accountants said to me was "I hope you have insurance to cover the cost of this because we hold no liability for the advice e have given you and forms we have filed". In the construction industry, if your a taxi driver or if you pretend to be a doctor you get the book thrown at you for pretending to be a registered professional. Maybe some of these cases could be looked at under the guise that if financial firms can get away with pretence then surely the rest of us should. Maybe if the whole point of being a registered professional in any field was better regulated and they were actually forced to take responsibility for there actions there might be better advice out there and less dubious tax avoidance and financial products so the country could benefit as a whole.

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Predictably, to be on BBC Moneybox later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047w54z

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Letter as posted by Paul Lewis.