Lowell chasing debt from wrong person

[katycoop]

My daughter's friend found an invoice by chance at home addressed to her from Littlewoods for items ordered from the catalogue.

 

She discovered that her sister had opened an account in her name

(her sister already had an account in her own name that she had defaulted on payment).

 

She wrote to Littlewoods indicating what had happened.

 

For a year she was passed around from department to department until

 

this week she received a letter from Lowells indicating that as she knew the person involved it was not treated as fraud,

it was a civil matter, and that the company would be chasing her for the debt.

 

I cannot believe that this is the case and would appreciate any comments.

[dx100uk]

hi and welcome to cag

 

they can try!!

 

 

dx

[renegadeimp]

Lowell up to their normal tricks again.

[unclebulgaria67]

Lowells have made someone bankrupt in this type of situation before and it took the person concerned ages to get out of it. There was a long running thread on CAG detailing the saga the person went through.

 

Whoever took out this account should deal with the debt, before it gets to a silly situation. Whilst you cannot be responsible for the actions of a family member, if this person has caused you a problem, they need to deal with it. You could report them to the Police for fraud.

 

Check your credit record.

[katycoop]

I think she is prepared to go to the police now but feel that it would be preferential if the company itself were to involve the police. She still has to live with her sister and would prefer to say that it was not her that contacted the police. I am not sure as there is lack of paperwork but it would appear that this account was opened whilst she was only 17 - how would that be possible with all the credit checks that are supposed to be carried out?

[unclebulgaria67]

I think she is prepared to go to the police now but feel that it would be preferential if the company itself were to involve the police. She still has to live with her sister and would prefer to say that it was not her that contacted the police. I am not sure as there is lack of paperwork but it would appear that this account was opened whilst she was only 17 - how would that be possible with all the credit checks that are supposed to be carried out?

 

You cannot have a credit account below the age of 18. Perhaps they should send a photocopy of their birth certificate to Lowell, saying that they need to return the account to Littlewoods, as it is quite clear that the account has not been legally obtained. i.e it is not possible for someone under the age of 18 to apply for a credit account.

[katycoop]

Yes, I have no absolute proof of when the account was opened. Most of the paperwork has obviously been intercepted by the sister and the only indication I have of the account being opened before her 18th birthday is that there is a statement showing late charges just about a month after her 18th birthday, hardly giving any time for opening the account, credit checks and ordering items before late charges accrued.

[renegadeimp]

Lowell will NOT contact the police. They would rather harass an innocent person to try and get money out of them.

[katycoop]

Littlewoods should have done something about it when they were first notified a year ago but they continued sending out goods. In the circumstances they were given my address for correspondence but failed to respond, even to say they could not send to my address. They should have acted more responsibly when notified of the problem.

[ericsbrother]

They are happy to chase her for the debt and get something rather than accept the truth and get nothing. She must force them to make the appropriate moves to clear your records and as this involves the sister, she is better placed to get co-operation from her if she are not bothered that the sister is a thief and a fraudster and has dropped her in it. There really wont be a nice outcome for this matter and it is better that the matter is faced head on sooner than later.