Below is brief history of my case.

This maybe slightly off topic as it is not the conventional creditor but a credit account with a spread bet company.

I opened an account online with IG Index in 2006. This was then upgraded to a credit account and for this there is one e-mail correspondence from them confirming that the credit limit is and another supposedly from me confirming that I was happy with the credit limit. There is no signed credit agreement nor were there any prescribed terms of a credit agreement in the email correspondence. While I do not recollect this I have had suspicious activity in my e-mail account (emails getting deleted) which was reported to yahoo who could not help.

Later on things went horribly wrong and IG closed my positions in a huge loss of tens of thousands of pounds. Immediately they started sending threatening letters followed up by threatening letters from their solicitors asking me to allow a voluntary charge on the property giving me three days time for this. The solicitors then followed this up with a county court claim "saying I made a written application to open the account and in doing so accepted the terms and conditions of the account". With threats and intimidation from the solicitors I was led to admit the claim. At the time I answered the allocation questionnaire there was an option to stay the matter for a month in order to try and resolve it privately. I checked that option of a stay of one month. In spite of that I had a judgement without any hearing and this was then immediately followed by a charging order and the charge registered on my property. I went through a redetermination process and had a hearing for the redetermination and the charging order but at that time when I was disputing the judgement, I was told that the hearing was for redetermination and charging order only and month payment was fixed along with a charging order on my property.

By this time all this had taken it toll on my and I was in a state of depression.

Having recovered from my past now, I sent a SAR to IG Index recently and received a big pack from them by special delivery containing screen prints of my account information. There were some account notes with references to phone calls, saying spoke to client and the client is happy with the account etc.

I then replied back re-iterated my request for ALL DATA including any phone conversations etc. In response to that I have a letter stating they do not index their calls by client and it would mean going into a vast quantity of storage media to retrieve the information which would cost them thousands of pounds. Why should this matter to me as to how much they have to spend in order to satisfy my perfectly lawful SAR?

I would like to appeal the CCJ, i.e. set aside the judgment and the following are the reasons I feel why this should be set aside.

1. Although a request for a one month stay was made in the allocation questionnaire this was not taken in consideration and the judgement a judgement was made without a hearing. Not only did this not give me a chance to SAR IG at that stage and get some sound advice on the contrary it led me to submit to the threats and intimidation of IG and their solicitors.

2. On doing the SAR recently the following facts have come to light:

a. Although in the claim form they have stated that I made a written application and in doing so accepted the terms of the account, I had not made a written application nor recollect accepting any terms.

b. As it stands it appears there seems to be just a couple of e-mail correspondence regarding upgrading the account to a credit account with allegedly one email from me stating that I was happy with the credit limit.

c. Although there is a credit limit in this e-mail there are no other prescribed terms whatsoever and as it stands it was not even signed by me nor do I recollect the alleged email correspondence accepting the credit limit.

d. The SAR request is not complete as requested for reason mentioned above.

Can you helpful people here help me in preparing a case for the judgement to be set aside and then battle the IG Index claim after that?

Early on in your post you say this:

'The solicitors then followed this up with a county court claim "saying I made a written application to open the account and in doing so accepted the terms and conditions of the account". With threats and intimidation from the solicitors I was led to admit the claim.'

Later, you say you returned an Allocation Questionnaire.

Those two pieces of information indicate to me that you perhaps filed a part admission and a defence to the other part. Would I be right? If so, what happened to the part of the claim that was disputed? If I'm wrong, was the whole of the claim admitted or was it entirely disputed? If entirely disputed, how was the claim finally decided, by which I mean, was it at a trial, or at some other kind of hearing?

Answering these questions will assist in deciding what further rights you may have.

x20

At the time due to threats and intimidation from the company and their solicitors claiming that if I were to not co-operate then they could fore a sale of my house, I actually admitted the claim. I do remeber that I disputed the amount (which was the interest they had added). The judjement initially was for the amount I admitted but soon followed with a correction to add interest and costs.

Do you have these threats in writing?

What became of that part of the claim you disputed and which requried an AQ?

What was the basis of the Defence you later withdrew?

x20

I have one letter from their solicitor stating that their client would like a charge on the house and then can discuss installments and requested a response in 3 days failing which they would take legal action.

Other than that this was mostly dealt over by phone. They also said we could make me bankrupt and get the money that way. Again this was over the phone. Which is why I have requested them to provide me with all data including phone calls under the SAR.

The claim was for an amount plus interest. At the time I admitted the amount but disputed the interest. I did not withdraw my dispute on the interest part. The judgment initially came at the full amount without the interest. But following the judgment they were then allowed to add interest and costs back on which is what I was told in subsequent redetermination/charging order hearing.

As I have never been in such a situation before at the time I was depressed and also did not get any good advice. I did not even read that they were stating that I made a written application and thereby agreed to be bound by the terms and conditions nor did I request for a copy of the alleged written application. Moreover the one month stay that I had requested through the allocation questionnaire to try and get some advice and resolve the matter did not materialize as the judgment was given without any stay and without even a hearing.

Bumping it up.

Can anybody guide me thorugh this process?

The trouble with setting aside a judgment in these circumstances is that the judgment was obtained on an admission. That is, an admission in the case. A somewhat worse situation than for example, an open admission pre-litigation. Plus, it would seem the judgment on the admission was entered some time ago.

To set aside a judgment on an admission and this old is an uphill struggle. The grounds you have put forward would not in an ordinary case on a contract be overwhelmingly sure-fire, let alone a case where judgment had been entered on an admission years earlier.

Then I thought like this. As a matter of public policy, Parliament generally seeks to strike a blance on one hand to permit responsible gambling and on the other to control gambling where necessary to protect citizens from overreaching themselves and so forth.

If the admission was of an obligation arising from an event which in fact the law prohibited or sought to control or make unenforceable owing to public policy consderations there may be a chance if an application could be dressed up in the right garb. I would anticipate that a court would not be slow to set aside a money judgment where it could be shown that the money claim arose from, for example, the price for bringing an illegal immigrant into the country.

Just a thought, no more than that. You might want to do a bit of research yourself on this topic and get back to us when you think you may have something to go on.

x20

Hello

I have just lost a lot of money with IG Index as well and fear what they are going to do.

Is it possible we could speak over the phone?

Hey guys, am sorry for your bad luck but you're not alone! I've started a thread Spreadbet debt/various credit cards - Any help please? Court Claim !!. Take a look. Not very far along but happy to share any info on that thread and have had a couple of responses from other members. L77