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Good evening, I need some advice regarding my sole trader independent business please,
I set up my business in June 2023 as a photographer, the market I was advertising to was mostly weddings but I also completed Christmas portraits, family portraits, commercial photography and also attended a charity drive by,
All of my advertising and initial communication was completed on Facebook, advertising on national wedding Facebook pages and groups and via my own business Facebook page, personal Facebook page and then business email address for confirmation.
All bookings were made via a non refundable deposit to secure their date , a confirmation of their payment would be sent via my business email and then zoom call consultations were available for all upcoming weddings to discuss details for the day as their booking was approaching.
188 bookings were made with myself for dates for 2024 , 2025, 2026 and 2027.
All funds to and from the business were held in a Barclays business account which was attached to a Barclays personal current account and two savings ISAs ,
From June 2023 to February 13th all 8 weddings were completed , photos received by couples within the advised time bracket for turnaround and all couples complimented my work and my personality with incredible high regard and 5* reviews were received on my Facebook page to compliment feedback that they gave,
On the 11th of February myself and my wife purchased a vehicle via private sale on Facebook sold to us with three previous passed MOT, no published advisories and the previous owner claimed there was no issues with the car apart from a near legal tyre which he dropped the price by £100 to reflect this,
A wedding was booked for the 12th of February 2024, the newly purchased car was driven to the wedding approximately 1.5 hours away from my home address and completed both outbound and return journey with no concerns.
A wedding was also booked for the 13th of February 2024 6 hours away from my home address, I achieved approximately 5 hours of the journey to the wedding where the newly purchased vehicle broke down in the middle lane of the M6 motorway 50 minutes away from the address i was travelling too , a pullover into the hard shoulder was acheived , the bride waiting for my arrival was contacted to update her of the situatuon along side my RAC breakdown recovery , I was advised by the RAC to wait outside the vehicle in the grass area of the motorway hardshoulder and wait for them to arrive,
After 2 hours a tow vehicle arrived and the diagnosis was a suspected fuel pump failure which would involve further investigation at a garage, as the new vehicle purchased was a 4wd a tow was not applicable and I was instructed to wait by the vehicle for a further advised 4 hours for a flat bed to transport the vehicle. I was advised that I was not able to dictate the garage the vehicle was taken too and it was delivered to a garage in Durham 2.5 hours away from the location I broke down.
The bride who was affected on the day of the initial breakdown was refunded within 24 hours of the incident and no further comment or action was taken.
After receiving further information from the garage in Durham about the condition of the car , the request for the car to be returned to our home town to a garage of our choice to be fixed was made to RAC after discovering that I was given incorrect information at the roadside it was finally agreed that RAC would return the car to us.
This took longer than expected and the vehicle did not arrive to our home town until nearly two weeks after the initial breakdown ,
This resulted in us not having a personal vehicle for ourselves or for me to travel to upcoming weddings.
I had two weddings upcoming for the 1st of march 2024 and the 2nd of march 2024, alternative transport was attempted to be arranged but this fell through, I made contact with several photographers on a Facebook page intended for 2nd photographers and cover photographers so that the weddings I was not able to attend were covered.
Two photographers were available and booked to complete these.
On the morning of the wedding of the 1st of march 2024 , the cover photographer who had been paid by myself to attend , agreed for the attendance by the wedding party and contact details exchanged , I had received notification from the bride that the cover photographer had contacted her to cancel as he could not complete the journey due to adverse weather.
On the evening of the 1st of march 2024 the bridal party contacted myself for a refund of the day to which I replied asking for the details of where the refund could be paid too but no response was received.
In the afternoon of the 2nd of march the Facebook business page was set to away and notifications stopped as I would be travelling abroad for a family holiday which was booked before the business was started and equipment to access the business was not being taken with me, a response had still not been received from the wedding party requesting a refund.
Once arriving at our holiday destination less than 12 hours later and flight mode on my wife and mother in law's phone was turned off , a series of bullying and harassing messages and comments on my wife's personal Facebook account had been sent , with customers of mine requesting a refund from the allegation of fraud,
Further investigation by my wife and mother in law resulted in the discovery of an emotionally written post written on the page of which I advertised on slating my professionalism as a photographer, my intentions as a photographer and claims of refusal to refund the bridal party affected on the 1st of march.
Several attempts by myself were made to get online , access the business and limit the damage that had been done but this was not possible. Despite the bridal party having my personal phone number no other attempt to contact myself was made before the post was submitted only one message was received less than 12 hours before the post was made and one message was discovered on my arrival back to the UK on the business Facebook page asking me to respond.
The post that was made on Facebook by the bridal party affected on the 1st of march resulted in a huge influx of false allegations fraud and scam and before I had the opportunity to respond and defend the allegations the bank had received multiple claims for refunds of deposits for future weddings.
Within 24 hours I had received notification via text message from my bank to say all my accounts had been suspended pending investigation of the allegations that had been made.
I returned to the UK on the 10th of march 2024 with letter notification that my accounts had been permanently closed, no other correspondence requesting evidence to defend myself was received during my time away.
On Monday 11th of march I visited my local branch in person to attempted to rectify the situation provide evidence of no fraud or scam intentions and attempt to reopen my accounts ,
I was advised that there had been 11 pages of claims that had been refunded and that I would need to file a complaint and await the fraud investigation team to contact me for further investigation and for me to submit my case, i was advised in branch that the accounts would not be able to be opened until the investigations were completed and a decision had been made but that all claims received by them were being refunded by the funds available in the business account.
No other bank was held by myself therefore I do not have any funds available to me to even pay my own personal bills, the decisions made by the bank to close my account combined with the amount of my future customers believing the false accusations made against me resulted in the only option available to me which was to cease trading and close the business,
The bank has made no pattern with who they have refunded and who they haven't , I am now receiving small claims court notices with claims against me that I am searching for help with how to defend myself but also how to proceed with the situation I have against me.
I set up my business in June 2023 as a photographer, the market I was advertising to was mostly weddings but I also completed Christmas portraits, family portraits, commercial photography and also attended a charity drive by,
All of my advertising and initial communication was completed on Facebook, advertising on national wedding Facebook pages and groups and via my own business Facebook page, personal Facebook page and then business email address for confirmation.
All bookings were made via a non refundable deposit to secure their date , a confirmation of their payment would be sent via my business email and then zoom call consultations were available for all upcoming weddings to discuss details for the day as their booking was approaching.
188 bookings were made with myself for dates for 2024 , 2025, 2026 and 2027.
All funds to and from the business were held in a Barclays business account which was attached to a Barclays personal current account and two savings ISAs ,
From June 2023 to February 13th all 8 weddings were completed , photos received by couples within the advised time bracket for turnaround and all couples complimented my work and my personality with incredible high regard and 5* reviews were received on my Facebook page to compliment feedback that they gave,
On the 11th of February myself and my wife purchased a vehicle via private sale on Facebook sold to us with three previous passed MOT, no published advisories and the previous owner claimed there was no issues with the car apart from a near legal tyre which he dropped the price by £100 to reflect this,
A wedding was booked for the 12th of February 2024, the newly purchased car was driven to the wedding approximately 1.5 hours away from my home address and completed both outbound and return journey with no concerns.
A wedding was also booked for the 13th of February 2024 6 hours away from my home address, I achieved approximately 5 hours of the journey to the wedding where the newly purchased vehicle broke down in the middle lane of the M6 motorway 50 minutes away from the address i was travelling too , a pullover into the hard shoulder was acheived , the bride waiting for my arrival was contacted to update her of the situatuon along side my RAC breakdown recovery , I was advised by the RAC to wait outside the vehicle in the grass area of the motorway hardshoulder and wait for them to arrive,
After 2 hours a tow vehicle arrived and the diagnosis was a suspected fuel pump failure which would involve further investigation at a garage, as the new vehicle purchased was a 4wd a tow was not applicable and I was instructed to wait by the vehicle for a further advised 4 hours for a flat bed to transport the vehicle. I was advised that I was not able to dictate the garage the vehicle was taken too and it was delivered to a garage in Durham 2.5 hours away from the location I broke down.
The bride who was affected on the day of the initial breakdown was refunded within 24 hours of the incident and no further comment or action was taken.
After receiving further information from the garage in Durham about the condition of the car , the request for the car to be returned to our home town to a garage of our choice to be fixed was made to RAC after discovering that I was given incorrect information at the roadside it was finally agreed that RAC would return the car to us.
This took longer than expected and the vehicle did not arrive to our home town until nearly two weeks after the initial breakdown ,
This resulted in us not having a personal vehicle for ourselves or for me to travel to upcoming weddings.
I had two weddings upcoming for the 1st of march 2024 and the 2nd of march 2024, alternative transport was attempted to be arranged but this fell through, I made contact with several photographers on a Facebook page intended for 2nd photographers and cover photographers so that the weddings I was not able to attend were covered.
Two photographers were available and booked to complete these.
On the morning of the wedding of the 1st of march 2024 , the cover photographer who had been paid by myself to attend , agreed for the attendance by the wedding party and contact details exchanged , I had received notification from the bride that the cover photographer had contacted her to cancel as he could not complete the journey due to adverse weather.
On the evening of the 1st of march 2024 the bridal party contacted myself for a refund of the day to which I replied asking for the details of where the refund could be paid too but no response was received.
In the afternoon of the 2nd of march the Facebook business page was set to away and notifications stopped as I would be travelling abroad for a family holiday which was booked before the business was started and equipment to access the business was not being taken with me, a response had still not been received from the wedding party requesting a refund.
Once arriving at our holiday destination less than 12 hours later and flight mode on my wife and mother in law's phone was turned off , a series of bullying and harassing messages and comments on my wife's personal Facebook account had been sent , with customers of mine requesting a refund from the allegation of fraud,
Further investigation by my wife and mother in law resulted in the discovery of an emotionally written post written on the page of which I advertised on slating my professionalism as a photographer, my intentions as a photographer and claims of refusal to refund the bridal party affected on the 1st of march.
Several attempts by myself were made to get online , access the business and limit the damage that had been done but this was not possible. Despite the bridal party having my personal phone number no other attempt to contact myself was made before the post was submitted only one message was received less than 12 hours before the post was made and one message was discovered on my arrival back to the UK on the business Facebook page asking me to respond.
The post that was made on Facebook by the bridal party affected on the 1st of march resulted in a huge influx of false allegations fraud and scam and before I had the opportunity to respond and defend the allegations the bank had received multiple claims for refunds of deposits for future weddings.
Within 24 hours I had received notification via text message from my bank to say all my accounts had been suspended pending investigation of the allegations that had been made.
I returned to the UK on the 10th of march 2024 with letter notification that my accounts had been permanently closed, no other correspondence requesting evidence to defend myself was received during my time away.
On Monday 11th of march I visited my local branch in person to attempted to rectify the situation provide evidence of no fraud or scam intentions and attempt to reopen my accounts ,
I was advised that there had been 11 pages of claims that had been refunded and that I would need to file a complaint and await the fraud investigation team to contact me for further investigation and for me to submit my case, i was advised in branch that the accounts would not be able to be opened until the investigations were completed and a decision had been made but that all claims received by them were being refunded by the funds available in the business account.
No other bank was held by myself therefore I do not have any funds available to me to even pay my own personal bills, the decisions made by the bank to close my account combined with the amount of my future customers believing the false accusations made against me resulted in the only option available to me which was to cease trading and close the business,
The bank has made no pattern with who they have refunded and who they haven't , I am now receiving small claims court notices with claims against me that I am searching for help with how to defend myself but also how to proceed with the situation I have against me.
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