Impressed! Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated

Thankyou for the information unclebulgaria67. I would not need a reference from them and don't plan on working in that industry again. Cerberusalert, thanks for help with the thread etc but interested to know how you know where I am in the world?! I am still in EAst Africa but the letter was sent to an old address here and all they have now is my email address. So would a debt collector really take this on? Would this affect me if I moved back to the UK and started working in a different industry?

Hi Im also not sure how to start threads and have a similar situation, so apologies. I now live abroad and have just received a quite threatening letter from a previous employer. I worked for in 2007 for 9 months in the UK. It was an invoice stating overpayment of 5000GBP and I had 30 days to repay or they would refer to a debt collector. I have therefore emailed them asking for more evidence and an explanation. They say it was a mistake of their payroll and they have been trying to find me since this time and been unsuccessful until now. I may have the wage slips somewhere back in the UK in storage, maybe? however I definitely do not recall a big lump sum being given to me. Unfortunately 5 years has only passed since there mistake. Just wondering if anyone has any legal advice on where I stand? Will I have to pay this back? Living abroad how does it work if they passed this to a debt collecter. I do plan to return to the UK next year.