More AUS debt being chased in the UK

[William415]

Thanks for your comments ... yes, I have seen that site. I actually spoke on the phone with the bloke who created it ... very nice guy, and quite helpful. I will continue to post updates as the story develops.

 

W

[William415]

Looks like the criminals from Credit Corp are trying to harass me again. I recently received a letter in the post from them (I did not open it, but I recognized their GPO Box return address). I

 

tried to follow a suggestion earlier in this thread, and return the letter to them. I have a red "Return to Sender" stamp, which I stamped on the outside of the envelope, and popped it into a letterbox in the city.

 

Two days later, the same letter (with the red stamp!) showed up in my letterbox at home!

 

Shouldn't the Post Office have returned it? What should I do?.

[krios]

William,

Maybe take a pen and black out your address?

Cheers

[William415]

Thanks ... maybe I will try that.

 

To those of you that have received letters from Steven Drake ... do they print their trading name on the envelope anywhere? The reason I ask is I want to know if I can identify any mail that I receive from them before opening it ... so that I can mark it "Return to Sender" as well.

 

Thanks.

 

W

[creditcorptrouble]

Hi there

 

I have somewhat of a long history with the company.

Unless your debt is absurdly huge, they will not come after you.

 

 

To enforce a foreign judgment in the UK, it must be registered in the High Court (Part 74.3(2)(a), Civil Procedure Rules)

just google 'cpr part 74' -

while the fee for registering the judgment is only £50,

there is a lot of additional paperwork that will need to be drafted by a UK lawyer.

 

 

The process will be expensive and in any event, credit corp do not seem to be aware of the procedure available to them

or they just can't be bothered. They knew that I was in the UK and I owed them $26,000 and they did nothing about it.

 

they certainly came after me when I returned to Australia,

but their staff and the lawyers they used made various procedural errors

which resulted in me obtaining an order restraining them from enforcing the judgment in Victoria.

So I can't (but don't want to anyway) move.

 

And remember, don't always believe what they say, the company has lied to me and broken many laws and I get plenty of emails from people who say the company lies to them as well.

 

Sorry, I was unable to post links here as I am a new user.

 

Regards

 

p.s. just to reassure you, credit corp cannot list a default on your UK credit file.

Edited February 12, 2011 by cerberusalert
link added by cerberusalert

[William415]

Hi Daniel,

 

Thanks for your post. I haven't heard from our friends for a couple of months now ... back in December, they sent me something in the post - I just marked it "return to sender" and sent it back. After all of the help I've received on this site, and from you, I'm totally reassured there is nothing they can do. I have successfully got them to stop harassing my employer, and they don't even try to call me anymore.

 

I know they cannot touch my UK credit file, which is in very good shape.

 

However, I'm curious if they have got a court judgement against me in Australia. Is there an easy way to find out? I read somewhere that if I make an inquiry into my Veda credit file, that any outstanding creditors will be notified. Is that true? I don't want them crawling out from under a rock and giving me a hard time again.

 

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking towards statute-barred when I will be rid of these cretins for good.

 

W.

[creditcorptrouble]

The best way to find out if there is a court judgment against you is to write to, or telephone, the civil registry of the court where proceedings were likely to have been issued (you don't mention what state it might have been in - you may even have to check more than one state's court).

 

If you have not had the writ/complaint/summons served on you and judgment was obtained in default, then you will be able to reverse that default judgment if you can provide evidence to support a claim that you were not served (and thus could not file a defence). Evidence might be documents that show that you were living at a different address at the time.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT request your Veda credit file. The skip tracing system that Veda runs will notify anybody subscribing to it (such as credit corp) of your new address. A workaround this problem (which I would not approve - but I did it myself) is pay for an email copy of your credit file. You can then give your last Australian address without divulging where you are now, and you will receive a copy of your credit file by email.

 

I guess I should mention my experience has been that the court's civil registry will not ask you for your current details and are quite willing to supply information over the phone as court files are a matter of public record.

[William415]

Thanks again, Daniel.

 

I have sent you a question by Private Message.

 

W.

[cerberusalert]

I guess I should mention my experience has been that the court's civil registry will not ask you for your current details and are quite willing to supply information over the phone as court files are a matter of public record.

 

I've added your url into post#67 + I've copied and pasted posts 67 & 70 into a sticky for ease of reference http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?250889-Can-I-Be-Sued-For-An-Overseas-Debt

[William415]

Also, if there is a civil judgement against me it would be in the state of NSW. I have done a google search, and I assume this is where I enquire:

 

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/district_court/ll_districtcourt.nsf/pages/dc_civil_registry_contacts

 

Is that correct?

 

Thanks.

[cerberusalert]

I would assume so, but you can email them for info; email: [email protected]

[creditcorptrouble]

My tip (from experience) - just call. That way there's no record.

[William415]

I have contacted the District Court (civil matters) in Sydney, and they have advised that no records have been found of any civil judgement against me. I assume this means there is no court judgement that can be enforced - either in Australia or the UK.

[cerberusalert]

I assume this means there is no court judgement that can be enforced - either in Australia or the UK.

Correct.

[creditcorptrouble]

Hi

 

Normally a debt under $60,000 would be started in the Local Court - so you might need to ring them instead. If there is a possibility of proceedings having been issued in another state (i.e. if you did not live in NSW) then check with that state's court too. Any debt in NSW becomes statute barred six years after the date when you last failed to make a payment.

[panic57]

What was the outcome of this? Any news?

[matecall]

What was the outcome of this? Any news?

 

William415, thanks for sharing all the information. Any idea about how this works in US (for OZ debit) ?

[William415]

Hello,

 

About 3-4 years ago, Credit Corp were chasing me about some statute-barred debts in Australia (I lived there for 8 years, and have been in the UK for 7 years now). I ran them around in circles (using the great advice received here), and they finally gave up.

 

But in the last two weeks, I've had 3 calls from them and they've left voice mail messages asking me to contact them. (They always call in the middle of the night ... business hours in OZ, I guess.) I can't believe these idiots are tying to have another go at me. All my OZ debts are statute-barred, so they have no chance.

 

Should I just ignore them? I'm worried that they will use the same tactic on me as last time - they looked up my profile on LinkedIn, and started contacting my employer trying to harass me. I don't want that to happen again, so I'd love to head them off if possible. However, I'm worried that acknowledging them in any way will result in them increasing their efforts.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

William

[cerberusalert]

They are in serious breach of the ACCC guidelines & you should make a complaint to them http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?307717-Fair-Debt-Collection-Practices-In-Australia

[krios]

William,

You need to BLAST them with a statute barred mail and DO NOT contact me again about this matter.

 

I believe they are alowed to ask you to pay but must not contact you again if requested by you not to do so.

[William415]

Hello,

 

I've done a search on CAG, but didn't come up with any information about this Australian organisation. I've received a couple of calls to my employer and my mobile from the NSW State Debt Recovery Office. I've checked their website to try and figure out what they could want with me, and it seems they deal with fines and wage garnishments.

 

Does anyone know what this could possibly be about?

 

The only thing I can think it might be related to is either (1) Fines for failure to vote (I'm still an Australian citizen, and compulsory voting covers citizens overseas); or (2) Back taxes.

 

I don't think it's related to any old statute-barred consumer debt that I have - I've checked, and there are no court judgements against me in Australia.

 

Any information from anyone familiar with dealing with this organisation would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

W.

 

[fkofilee]

So you are over here in the UK ?

 

Why not contact them and find out what its for? Just get some information and how much its for.

Very rarely they will chase in another country.

 

My interest is how they got your employer's number etc.

[unclebulgaria67]

You will have to contact them to find out. If you have been resident in the UK, they may just want you to provide some evidence of this.

 

Because it is a state type debt, you will have to sort it out, otherwise you risk getting detained the next time you travel to Australia.

[William415]

Yes, I am here in the UK and have no plans to return to Australia anytime soon.

 

I was hoping to get some information in advance as to the likely issue before contacting them - but if nobody here has any prior experience, then I'll just have to give them a call and find out what they want.

 

They likely got my employer's details from social media - most likely LinkedIn.

 

I find unclebulgaria67's reply quite interesting, though - I could be potentially detained if I try to enter Australia? If that's the case, this has to be a tax thing - right?

[unclebulgaria67]

State recovery suggests that it is a fine or penalty which the state administrates.

 

If this is something that was not paid,

 

I am guessing that it becomes a criminal offence and this could be noted on official records.

 

Whether you would get stopped at an airport,

I was speculating.

 

Some countries do appear to be getting very officious, with NZ to stop people at airports due to unpaid student loans.

 

http://www.sdro.nsw.gov.au/contact/