Just chanced upon this thread...As I understand the law, a creditor cannot enforce a judgment against you in a UK court if they are aware that you are now resident i.e. have a permanent and sole address outside of the UK. Neither can a bankruptcy action be brought against you. However.....the EU has agreed a procedure known as an EPO -European Payment Order - which comes into force in January 2009 and can be used to enforce collection of a UK debt without the CCJ. As I understand this law, if you wish to contest the debt, the hearing must take place at a court in the country where the debt was incurred.

I should have said that the business stumbled on for a year after we left the UK. So no deliberate flight.

This site is extremely informative and reassuring. Having read the posts, I feel happier already! My situation is: I left the UK three years ago to live in the Czech Republic. My credit rating at that time was the highest attainable. I am retired and my partner and I owned a medium-sized company which we left, for partner's health reasons, in the hands of our Managers, who basically proceeded to run it into the ground. As a result we put the Company into voluntary liquidation, paying off all creditors and losing a lot of money. We sold our properties to pay our creditors, moved abroad and rented a house. Before leaving the UK, I negotiated a loan with our bank for £25k. It was made clear to both parties that this was a loan for business purposes - to help purchase new workshop equipment. The loan was in my name but the bank was aware that payments were coming from our Limited Company into my account to enable me to pay it back. Repayments were made for one year until the business closed. The Bank was given my address in the CR and I wrote to them when the business closed stating that I was unable to make repayments from my now severely curtailed income. I should stress that the loan money was not used by me personally,it went straight into the Company account. I moved from my first address two years ago, having heard nothing from the bank. Last week my old landlady brought round to my new address five letters received in the last three months - she had been away. Two were from the bank, two from an American collection firm and one from a Czech DCA. They are threatening unspecified legal action they 'may' take. I have a small amount of money in a Czech bank but not enough to repay the loan. I know I am legally responsible for repayments but as I have never spent any of this money and am over sixty years of age I am anxious to limit any repayment to the minimum. My partner has had no income since the business closed so two of us are living on my pension income until he reaches retirement age next year. I'd like to know if a CCJ could be issued against me when a) the bank knows I have lived abroad for three years and b) they do not have my current address and what if anything the Czech DCA can do to me. I would like to spend my remaining savings on putting a contract on the greedy moronic 'managers' who took advantage of our absence to ruin what was a thriving business but morality and the fear of being caught deters me. Any advice would be much appreciated.