What's the (legal) situation if a lender falsifies information to help debtor qualify for a loan?

[bunglejemson]

I'm not looking to avoid my debt (I've paid 85% of it off already anyway); I just want to know where I might stand legally with my current situation.

 

In February 2005 I approached my bank (Barclays) to apply for a Graduate Loan. I was told that I could not apply as two of the criteria for eligibility are:

 

Proof of permanent employment (or job offer starting within 3 months)

Confirmation of your qualification

 

At that time I had not taken my final exams, so couldn't provide the latter; similarly, although I had a job offer it was not to start until September and so it wasn't 'within 3 months'.

 

In April 2005 I revisited the branch because I did have confirmation of my qualification at that stage; also, I had a job offer to start work in the US in July on a three month internship; I had another job offer for permanent employment when I returned to the UK in September.

 

I was told, however, that overseas work cannot count towards the three month rule, so I was still ineligible. (April - September = more than 3 months)

 

However, the customer service assistant said she would process the loan and instead would simply 'fudge' the application so that my employment start date was set as July rather than September, allowing me to get the loan.

 

I did not sign anything confirming this; but neither did I challenge the customer service advisor at the time - I needed the loan in order to clear my university debts, otherwise I wouldn't be able to graduate.

 

Since then, the debt has been restructured to remove PPI (and so a new loan agreement has superseded the old one), but I am interested to find out what the legal situation might be with regards Barclays falsifying my application to qualify me for a loan that I was, in fact, ineligible for.

 

Can anyone offer any thoughts? As I said, I've actually paid 85% of the loan off and I'm about to make full settlement on the remainder at the end of this month, so it's largely a moot point, but a few posts on the MSE boards have sparked my interest in this.

 

Thank you.

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

You did I sign the agreement so IMHO you were aware of the misinformation, I don't like to use the word FRAUD, but Barclay's might well do so.