The law has always worked on the assumption that once the sentence has been carried out the guilty have paid for their crime against society. It seems to me that there are too many of these unregulated and arbitary dtatabases out there which have a huge impact on the lives of people and can contain information that is no longer legally meant to be held on that individual. In the case of criminal sentences, how are those who commit a crime ever able to integrate back into society? Yes, there are always the 'bad uns' but many, many people were foolish in their youth or even committed a 'crime' that is no longer seen as such. I have seen an employee's record (when I worked in corporate HR) that mentioned he had a criminal record for indecency with another many before the laws vs homosexual intercourse were repealed. This was STILL on his record in the 1990s and was expressed as a box that was ticked with a (please turn to page x for details) anyone reading the front page without doing this would simply assume he was a crook etc. I couldn't help wondering how this might have damaged his career prospects at the company over the years. One wonders how up to date such records actually are, in my experience, they are usually poorly maintained and inaccurate,

OK, here's one for you. My wife works in sales for a multinational. She travels extensively around the UK & Ireland and frequently clocks up business travel and accommodation expenses in excess of £1000 per month. He salary is modest and after tax etc. she takes home about £2100 per month. The company have issued her with an AmEx card which is in her name. This account, in her name, needs to be paid off at the end of every month. This means that from her £2100 take home on average £1000 is immediately paid to AMEX, if it is not then the card is frozen and she ends up having to fund expenses herself. The problem is that her employer pay her expenses up to 2 weeks after the AMEX bill is due to be paid. We are STILL waiting for November's expenses to be paid. Because of the increased expenditure around Christmas she was unable to afford to pay the November AMEX bill so AMEX cancelled her card and reported her to her employer for paying the bill late. She is now being investigated by her company accounts team for paying her company credit card late. She is continuing to rack up expenses doing her job. so - just to recap - she frequently racks up expenses that average around 50% of her take home, these are paid on an company AMEX card in her name which she has to pay off every month. Her employer usually don't settle her expenses claim (which is submitted promptly and in accordance with their rules) until 2 weeks AFTER the AMEX bill needs to be settled. In December, they didn't pay her expenses at all which resulted in her November and December AMEX bills not being paid (she has received no expense payment since November. Her employer now has the BRASS NECK to be investigating her use of the company credit card because she is unable to pay the bill. Over the next 3 weeks she has to again travel and will require around £1000 to fund this trip. She is asking me if I can lend her the money so she can go (it is an essential part of her job). I run a small company and am a one man business, I am beyond angry that she is expected to bank roll their business for 2 weeks out of every month and even more angry that they have not yet paid expenses going back to NOVEMBER. despite them being signed off and approved by the company's SAP system. Their tardiness has resulted in her company credit card being revoked and not they are expecting her (me) to bankroll their business for another month. Just to recap - this is a multi national, blue chip business. They have not given any reason why the expenses are late, both her manager and the one above her are utterly spineless in chasing to find out what the issue is. HR don't want to know. I am cynical enough to recognise that being an American business, their fiscal year ends in December. I have no idea whether or not others have had their expenses delayed but because my wife's 'patch' is the largest (Scotland North of England, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden whereas her colleagues would be 'North London') her expenses are significant because they constitute such a large chunk of her pay packet. It might be that they have simply decided to delay payment of expenses over 'x' because it was year end and management bonuses were at stake. In the face of this I am beyond frustrated. My advice to her is to simply refuse to carry out any further business travel UNTIL the company settles its outstanding expenses, re issues her AMEX card, cancels the 'investigation' and wipes her personnel record clean and agrees to pay her expense claim BY THE END OF THE MONTH they are occurred. However, because the company is going through 'restructuring' she is terrified of losing her job. we have fought about this as I am disinclined to fund the next 3 weeks which I see as bank rolling another business which I am not prepared to do when I am forced to cut my travel. I have told her that as far as I see, she doesn't have a job because this sort of existence is simply not worth it. Is there anything that we can do other than downing tools (which I still think is the only way to go with this)? Personally I am inclined to pay my wife the money she needs to fund the business and then, once her expenses claim is in, pursue her company through the invoice system, which they won't pay and which I can then escalate to the FD by hitting them with a winding up order - I can then explain why I have invoiced them. any other ideas how to confront this despicable behaviour - (all the more disingenuous because she was the only one in her team to actually make target last year)?

- nope - we moved out of the property in April 2015 - This is the first I've heard from them despite writing to them in April 2015 advising them of our new address and proposing a repayment schedule we could afford. I am happy to pay for power we used but decidedly unhappy about the increase in the amount and the sharing of my personal confidential details with a 3rd party (ie my mother)

At the time I was quite clear about where we lived and I informed the creditors where we were moving and when. I've not seen any paperwork at our new address (the one on the notice) concerning a CCJ

thanks BA the creditor is a very wealthy land owner in the East of scotland. I'm still at loss to understand why I have a CCJ dated when I was resident in Scotland. Looking back through my files, it appears that I was contacted in mid May 2014 by the assistant factor at the estate when I informed him of my new address, when I would be moving and that we would honour the debt but required a realistic time to pay. It appears, given the time line, that this information was handed to their solicitors without a by your leave with instructions to collect. I will, however,take th your advice contact the Bailiffs about this and see what happens. I've written to them explaining the situation and our current poverty. I have also stressed that I have explained this to their client on numerous occasions as well as stressing that I intend to honour the debt but need more time to generate the income necessary. (incidentally, the client, an aristocratic land owner which owns great swathes of Scotland and the north of England, appear to confirm many prejudices about the aristocracy as they don;t seem to believe that people own nothing.) Lets hope the bailiff, talks some sense to them, advises them to back off and wait until I can pay. Its the only way they will realistically get their money back.

Hi all, it never rains but it pours. I have just received a letter from my mother, it is a demand for payment for a debt of £7XXX. It is addressed to Mr C XXXXXX and is posted to my mother's address but demands payment for power used at my old address. I share my late father's initial so my mother opened the letter thinking it was addressed to him. Letter: 8th September Dear Mr +++++++ We are a debt collection agency and we have been instructed by our client Scottish & southern power to contact you in relation to an amount of £7XXX, which their records show as being outstanding. The original balance of £6XXX has incurred a 15% recovery administration charge of £9XX due to non payment. The supply relates to the supply of Electricity services to: XXXXX(my former address) XXXXX (billing end date) the amount of £7117.58 is now due for payment. Please call us on XXX to pay by debit or credit card If you are experiencing problems ETC........ If you believe that there is a valid reason why you are not liable for this debt then we ask that you contact us immediately so we can get the matter resolved. Now my mother subsequently received a phone call from Advantis asking to speak with C Palmer in relation to a debt owed to S&S Energy She informed the caller, truthfully, that Mr C Palmer was dead. when we moved house in 2014 I informed Scottish & southern of our new location and had offered them, in writing, to settle the outstanding debt on a month to month basis. They didn't write back. In fact the first thing I have seen about this debt is this letter to my mother. I can only assume that Advantis have bought the account and are trying pot luck by sending the bill to everyone with my surname in the area. I'm also intrigued as to how a debt that was around the £3,500 mark is now, 12 months later over 7k. S&S energy ignored my offer and subsequently handed the debt over to the collectors with no new address advice and because of their incompetency they are now harassing my mother, disclosing confidential information to her concerning my account with S&S Energy and because they have obviously made an error, they have doubled the bill? Just for the record, I have never lived at my mother's address. What do you suggest I do? I'm keen for them to stop hassling my mother but I am also keen to understand why, despite my reasonable offer in 2014 and my informing them of my new address, they have decided to double the amount owed and to share my account details with a 3rd party. I am happy to pay for power used but I'm bvggered if I'm paying anything extra especially to a XXXXXX like advantis

Hi, I've just returned home after a trip away to find a Notice of Enforcement dated 3/9/15 with a deadline of 11/9/15. The debt relates to a CCJ which was apparently issued to me on the 18th June 2014 and is for about £8700, a sum relating to rent for a premisis that was rented out by a LLP I was in until June 2014. The lease required that the holder be one of the partners and not the business as a whole. Now, I was aware of the debt but unaware a CCJ had been taken out, probably because until 02 July 2014 I was resident in Scotland and not in England. I had received notice that they were pursuing me in Scotland but have not received any correspondence, to my memory, about this being transferred or brought in a County Court. In April 2014 I wrote to the creditor explaining that I was moving and giving the date of the move. I also made a repayment offer which explained that although the lease was in my name it was for rent incurred by the business and that I needed some time to collect the sum from my business partners as I was unable to afford the amount. My former business partners have been remiss in honoring their obligations to share the responsibility for the non limited debts, I set up another business, sole trader in September 2014 but it is taking a very long time to get going. My only income is the tax credits I get because of this and the child tax credits. My wife works and pays the rent and bills from her account. We have no possessions of any value. My car is £500 and is essential to my business as is my computer. anything of value I possessed was sold to prop up the partnership. So, I'm fully expecting the Bailiffs to turn up and do what they do at any time, I would pay the sum if i had the cash, I could recover it from my former partners but don;t have the funds to pursue them. I would declare myself bankrupt but don't have the money. I'm at a loss what to do. I don't ever play this card but I am effectively disabled, I have a chronic health condition that impacts my ability to work and means it is taking me a lot longer to get my business off the ground as it impacts how much time I can spend working. I never make this an issue because its giving up but I know that had I been fully fit I wouldn't be in this situation as I would have earned the money to repay the debt by now. shall I write to the creditor and explain this? They won't get what they claim from any fire sale because there is nothing to sell. The best bet they have is to agree a realistic term of payment, this is likely to be small for the foreseeable future. Or give me the time to force the funds from the business partners. any thoughts would be very welcome, am utterly depressed about the whole situation, and seriously considering an overdose I put everything into that business and all I have to show for it is ruin. Lesson - if running a small business NEVER do business with a corporate, they don't pay their bills on time and don't care about the consequences for their suppliers.

Hi, Here's one for you. I work as a freelancer. In June last year I agreed to work with a business, the deal was that I would sell my services through their brand and receive 60% on my billings, for months when I did not bill, I would receive a cash payment to tide me over. I signed an acceptance of offer letter with them and started working with them at the beginning of July. All went well and I quickly secured an opportunity to deliver some highly complex services to a large business I know well. I was concerned at my associates capability to support me with delivery and asked them if they wished to be involved. As the business would be worth several million over a 5 year period they readily reassured me. at this stage I pointed out that if we were going to bid for the work, it would have a significant impact on my short term sales. They told me not to worry. By Mid October, I had spent 6 weeks preparing the initial bid, the timescale with the client had slipped to early 2015 and I informed my associates, this time I offered them the choice of backing out of our relationship if they no longer wished to take the risk of supporting me whilst I bid for it. Again, they reassured me that they were very keen to remain involved and supported me 100% as well as thanking me for my excellent work. Despite this I was beginning to get some pressure to generate short term income so I started to work on a few smaller projects. This pressure increased and I began to have concerns around their capability to deal with a large and complex project especially from the financial perspective as the concerns seemed to indicate that cash flow may be an issue. On 30th November my invoice for October's work was due for payment. 3 days later the money had still not arrived so I wrote to them asking if they had processed the payment and received a cryptic reply along the lines of 'what was due to be paid has been paid'. a week later still nothing. At this point they started to demand information about my clients which was above an beyond the call of detail. I said i wold be happy to share it once their outstanding invoice had been paid. I chased it on two further occasions and was told by them that it was due to be paid and in the process. Again they asked for the detailed information, again I told them that once the outstanding invoice was paid, they would get this information. At this point they showed their true colours. I received a very aggressive email from a the other owner of their business stating that he had 'blocked the payment' because he was unhappy that I had not provided details that I was 'contractually obliged to provide' he then went onto libel me saying he had received information 'concerning me and my character' from 'anonymous individuals' . This email was shared with e 3rd party. I immediately wrote back stating that I did not respond to threats and that the email was libelous as he had not provided the information that he was party to nor had he identified the source - merely implied that it was negative and that he also shared the email with a 3rd party (which he did). I also pointed out that until Monday this week they had not shown any concerns over the quality of the work I had done to date, quite the contrary I had emails from them as well as two telephone conversations (recorded) where they praised my work to date and thanked me for it. I also pointed out that they had accepted the invoice and had been asked on 3 separate occasions where the money was and had on all those occasions been either directly reassured or reassured by implication that all was in hand. The response to this was to send me a copy of some terms of business which I had never seen and which were dated July (I had signed in June). They stated that I was in breach of contract because I had - a/ set up another similar business outwith their arrangement with the intention of 'cutting them out' (this business predates the relationship with this company and I have always been public about its existence, on twitter and on Linkedin and the business offers services that are in a similar field but completely unrelated to the business I had with the associate. Additionally the associates were well aware of the existence of the business and had never raised it as an issue in the past.) b/ in witholding the detailed client information they required I was in breach of their contract (the terms of business that I had not seen before). These state nothing about information and only state that if they deem that (unspecified) work is no carried out to their satisfaction, they can pursue me for all money paid to me prior to the date. I wrote to them informing them that I had never seen these terms before and on top of that had never been given any previous indication that my work had been substandard, in fact I had received plaudits for the quality of the work. The reply I got was to 'stop playing games' and that I had 'signed the contract and the terms in July (I actually signed it in June) and that I was bound by it. He also directly accused me of lying and shared the email with two 3rd parties. at this point I had had enough and informed them that our business relationship was over due to non payment of invoice and that I was handing the matter over to a debt collector. They wrote back again telling me to 'stop playing games' and accusing me of breach of contract and demanding that I repay them all money paid to date and returned a laptop by tomorrow (friday) or they would report me to the police for theft. - Since then (tuesday) I have received several emails asking me what I intend to do. I have not replied. - Now I did some checking up on these guys and don't like what I hear. The partner I appear to have fallen out with fancies himself as an amateur lawyer and his emails are full of faux legalese that doesn't make much sense at all. (My late father was a judge and I have a pretty good understanding of what this looks like). It appears he spends most of his time logging online claims through the small claims court so I am concerned that he is going to attempt this tomorrow. Now my reason for posting here is to get a 3rd party perspective on this. I intend to do the following: 1/ hand the debt to a debt collection business and instruct them to pursue it in writing as well as verbally 2/ I have written down the entire sorry saga as best as I can recall and tomorrow I intend to visit a commissioner of oaths and swear an oath on it and post it to myself recorded delivery 3/ pay my lawyer to write a cease and desist letter to the individual who has libeled me threatening him with action if he does it again. 4/ I am considering reporting them for fraud over the 'terms of business' which I had neither seen nor signed My main concern is 2 fold - 1/ to ensure that should he attempt an online small claims bid his claim will run into deep water quickly due to the defence I have and the counter claim. 2/ to make sure I can prove to the police (should he report me for theft) that the matter is civil, that return of the computer in question has been given an unreasonable timescale especially at this time of year (48 hrs) and that as it is a civil case and I am owed money by this business, I have a right to hold it for security and have indeed informed them that I would return it once the invoice was paid. Are my tactics sound and is there anything else I can do? I have limited funds for a fight? Research and having spoken to several people who have carried out the work I have done for them in the past shows that they are not to be trusted and I have heard similar stories. They are very foolish in acting in this way because I am very well known in the industry they work in and could make life very difficult for them in the future. I have not done so yet nor have I threatened them. thanks in advance