I have a question for you legal eagles, but first an outline. Recently there was a case of a DCA trying to collect CC debt of £3000 escalated to £8000 by interest. There never was an agreement, only an application which has never been found or presented in any form A DCA tried to obtain this debt by threatening court action. The chap replied do your worst. Court action started. The DCA then sent him some interest summaries and a Credit card agreement between him and a company he had never heard of. This agreement was undated and unsigned. They threatened to send these to court unless he agreed to pay up. He wrote back and asked who this company was, and where was the assignment. They sent him an assignment signed by the - what they thought was the original creditor but on the DCA’s headed notepaper. A complete fabrication. He did and said no more. He barred the phone calls from the DCA’s solicitor. He went to the court to contest the case, but the DCA had withdrawn and there was no case. My question is: Has this DCA committed an offence in trying to obtain money fraudulently under the 2006 fraud act section 2 (fraud by false representation), Which goes on to say: (1)A person is in breach of this section if he— (a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and (b)intends, by making the representation— (i)to make a gain for himself or another, or (ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss. (2)A representation is false if— (a)it is untrue or misleading, and (b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading. (3)“Representation” means any representation as to fact or law, including a representation as to the state of mind of— (a)the person making the representation, or (b)any other person. (4)A representation may be express or implied. (5)For the purposes of this section a representation may be regarded as made if it (or anything implying it) is submitted in any form to any system or device designed to receive, convey or respond to communications (with or without human intervention). Problem: The DCA had come to obtain information about an existing unenforceable debt. It had no agreement, application form or any documents to show how the debt was incurred. It started to pursue this chap for the debt. It is quite obvious that the agreement was a false representation as was the assignment. If this chap had not been on the ball he may have just paid up, but he smelled a rat. Now this would appear to be a tactic used by this DCA to frighten people to pay a debt which is unenforceable, but used deceit to make gains or tried to obtain money knowing that it had made false representation. This DCA tried to con this chap into paying, they must use other similar tactics with other people, but are they committing an offece? What do you think?

Has anyone ever had a problem with the DWP activating a debt for overpayment when you weren't even signing on? I am having money taken for an overpayment in January 2006 from Hull Jobcentre (for a job I was supposed to have done) when I wasn't signing on and not even living in the Hull catchment area, I was living off the proceeds of my house and credit cards. I did sign on later that year in late September when I was living near Hull. I can't seem to get them to grasp the fact that even if I did a job then it was none of their business as I wasn't signing on. I am awaiting written details of all this but to date have not received anything apart from a letter from the Hull jobcentre manager confirming that there are no papers for that time and that I am still liable for £138.04 in total (£65.40 has already been deducted). Anybody out there who can advise I would be grateful.

HI I'm new to this forum and have read that much about this I thought I would just start my own thread I'm not sure if I'm been stupid or paranoid or if its true but I'm worried I may be committing fraud ????? I will start from the beginning and explain the best I can ...last June me and my ex of 14years separated we have had a VERY messy relationship (cheating domestic violence etc..) and something happened last year I won't go into it and we split up he moved to his mams and stayed there for a while before moving away just before Xmass , he came up every forth night to see his kids paid his maintenance etc.... And everything was going fine . However about 2mths ago we started seeing each other when he came to see the kids I started going for days out with them and one thing led to another and now when he comes I let him stay over at mine which is once or twice a month I don't see us as a couple just two people having fun and enjoying ourselves and I could not live with him again for many reasons (it's complicated) and I am no way ready to commit to anything serious with anyone . However I work part time and claim housing and ct benefit and since my ex has started staying over my friends tell me I'm committing benefit fraud so after searching on the Internet for the rules of housing benefit I have come across some horror stories of women who have partners staying over and they are been accused of fraud even more so when there partner is there ex . This is really worrying me I have only ever claimed HB once about 10 years ago and that was only for a short period of time so I do not know much about this sort of thing any help and advice would be great Thanks : )

I am in receipt of carers allowance as I care for my disabled son and daughter. A woman I was talking to said she gets Carer's allowance for both her sons, but as two seperate payments as she is looking after two people. Is that even possible? I'm not saying she was lying, but I was under the impression you could only claim it once regardless of how many people you are caring for?

Hi all My lender has been persuing me for a debt I can prove I don't owe. They recently agreed this though only verbally! . Have letters etc. for 2 years asking for this - which was incorrect accounting on their part Also , the lende agreed to terms I thought we had initially agreed too. For about 3years they denied these terms though transcripts of phone calls and recording prove otherwise though they never formally agreed to the terms. Because of the supposed belief in these terms we permitted a short sale of a property ; weeks before completion of the sale the lender changed the terms completely ! - is this blackmail ? They led us down a path and then changed the rules at the last minute ; now ; but only verbally they agree with the initial terms after 5 years of torture I assume they are playing nice simply because they realise they are in a tight spot. I cannot go to the FSA as it is outside their jurisdiction My question is harassment for a debt I never owed is easily provable , but blackmail is more tricky ? What legal stance should I take - they certainly aren't now playing ball for fun so assume they realise they are in the smelly stuff Any advice welcome