Hi guys, i would appreciate it if anyone could give some advise on my situation.

I have received a letter of claim from lowell of £660 for an old vodafone account from 2011.

At that time i had lost my debit card and someone had done identity fraud using my details and had taken out multiple phone contracts under my name.

i had reported this to the police and had contacted all the mobile phone providers who had cancelled the contracts apart from vodafone who did not agree.

Eventually they had passed the debt over to lowell ( or moorcroft, cant remember but its been transferred a lot).

After calling and sending letters constantly i panicked and agreed to pay them £1 a month in late 2011/start of 2012.

In total i have paid £9 towards the debt

however i cant remember the exact dates so i don't know if 6 years have passed.

i received a letter of claim on the 21/01/18 and on the letter it says that the debt was assigned to their client on march 2014.

it shows a statement of account from 2014 to 2018 which states i have made payments of £9,

however those were not made during those dates.

I have received a reply form and an information sheet with the letter .

i would really appreciate it if someone can help me with this because i don't want to end up paying a debt that i don't owe and i don't want it to end up going to court.

thank you

Hi and Welcome to CAG

Please refer to the following link.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?481827-The-Pre-Action-Protocol-for-Debt-Claims-is-made-by-the-Master-of-the-Rolls-as-Head-of-Civil-Justice.-1st-Oct-2017

Andy

have you still the crime ref number from all that time ago.

No unfortunately I don’t

ok lets play it another way

if this were to goto court [ which is very easily defended with what you say and the defences we use]

is there anyway you can prove this ID theft happened at that time by other docs?

Hi Andy,

thanks for the response

ive read through the link, i just want to confirm. do i follow the instructions for sending a CCA request?. i've read on other places that its not applicable to mobile phone contracts.

correct hang fire

answer my questions please

ok lets play it another way

if this were to goto court [ which is very easily defended with what you say and the defences we use]

is there anyway you can prove this ID theft happened at that time by other docs?

I don’t have any other docs. At the time all I did was go to the police and gave the crime reference number to the mobile phone companies who cancelled the contract apart from Vodafone.

My only worry about it going to court is that I can’t risk a Ccj after finally getting rid of the default that was on there. Also the fact that I won’t be able to pay the while sum in one go if it doesn’t go my way.

Thanks for the help

I would assume that in the time it would take these fleecers to get this to court

if you were to send an sar to your bank

the evidence of identity theft would be with your

sorry i didnt understand can you explain it again?.

my bank at the time closed my accounts and i wasn't able to get a normal bank account for a few years, if that helps.

You need documentary proof of fraud at the time

Bank letters you'll get in an sar will be perfect

The police would also be able to look at either local systems or PNC to trace any crime reports made by you and give you the CRN for the report.

That's in addition to the SAR with the bank(s). It'll all help you to prove your case.

okay so i send sar to the bank and get the crn from police? is that correct?

also what should i reply to lowell then since i need to send back the reply form and i doubt the bank will get back to me in time

yes.

do you think you made those silly payments before feb 2012?

you really need to wise up for the future

a DCA is NOT A BAILIFF

and have

ZERO LEGAL POWERS.

Yeah I made 9 £1 a month payments starting around December 2011/jan 2012

I think id simply be replying to lowells that the contract was subject to identity fraud

and was not opened nor operated or known about by you at the time

please refer to the notes on the account left by Vodafone.