Can I legally claim money and/or mobile phone back from ex-boyfriend?

[katapigeon]

I am wondering what happens if i report my ex-boyfriend's mobile phone stolen to the police?

 

The phone and monthly direct debit for it is on my name on my bank account. He has a recent criminal past and therefore he said he cannot have his own bank account, ID, passport or any possessions. He obviously did not pay me the monthly fees, only gave me the first month's charge that was charged to me after using phone for 7 days. He lived with me altogether for 3 months and at this point he was still with me. 3 weeks after he got the phone we fell out with each other and he moved out, said he'll stay with his sister for a while but in reality he moved to his ex-gf and he left me high and dry with his phone bills piled up over the following few weeks to £97.65. This amount is made up of another month's monthly charge plus 47 GBP in call charges that he ran up (not with me!). When I found out about this I asked the network to put on a barring on his outgoing calls and txts and to hold any payments to be taken from my account as I'm in the process of chasing up payments from him first. When i confronted him about the situation, he admitted being back under his ex's roof but kept saying he wants to come back to me and he has his financials too tangled up with his ex so he's trying to sort that out. Since then i was always asking him to pay the phone bills or give phone back to take the contract off my name but he did not do so, just kept making promises and kept saying he wants to keep seeing me, stay for the weekend with me, go on a day trip with me, etc. I met him a few times after he moved from me but he never gave me any money and as usual whenever I spent time with him, I always ended up spending my money on him mainly for food and alcohol. He has a job and his wages are going into his ex-gf's bank account, this was unknown to me until a few days ago i found at my place one of his payslips from this year january that he must have accidentally left behind when taking his stuff from me. His address on it is the ex-gf's address. He might have changed this to his parents' address by now, I wouldn't know that and i have no info what that address is. He is now in the clear in terms of being able to get a bank account and passport for himself, unless he did something stupid again after he moved out from me but that as well I wouldn't know about. He was a very lousy, lazy and expensive boyfriend to have and I never had intention spending money on him at all but he always found a way with me. He was also drinking a lot and intimidating my housemates for no good reason. He left me out of pocket quite a bit but i have no actual proof of any of that. He owes money even to this ex-gf for bail money, he owes money to his own parents for a lot of unpaid fines and charges from before when he lived with them and had a car on his name on their address (before going into prison).

Since am trying to chase up phone from him and bill payments, i have been contacting him on whatsapp mainly. Lately I have been refusing to 'see him to try to work things out between us' and told him he has to cough up money that he owes me. Then this week he started telling me to eff off when i asked him to pay up so i called the network and told them the issue, they advised to blacklist his nr and phone IMEI nr too, they also told me it is basically theft because he has refused to give phone back. Network then sent me a new sim card and I was able to transfer his phone's phone number onto this new sim card so now he only got the handset. Whatsapp and wifi was still working on his phone until I took over his phone nr so i messaged him last chance to pay up or give phone back. Then i was getting an answer that am sure his ex-gf was typing to me, threatening me with pressing harassment charges (would not stand on strong legs at all!) and was making contradicting claims that the phone was a gift (which it was not, in the general sense anyway but might be in the legal terms) then was saying the phone isn't his phone then said they'll let me know when they'll arrange the phone to be dropped off to me. I was asking for being a bit more specific but obviously nothing more was specified to give a time and date even just approximately. I also asked what form of communication is he gonna use to notify me about phone drop off coz his phone nr will stop working in a few days due to unpaid phone bills. No answer of course. I did keep all these messages when they started bringing up the harassment accusation but i got no proof of previous messages about just how many times he has been asking to see me and spend time with me but I have got some more txt messages from the past few weeks when i asked him for phone back and bill payments.

 

This week i have paid off his phone bills because the network was about to cancel the service and i would've been left with a bad credit to my name. He still wasn't agreeing to make a payment of any sort. He (or his ex-gf...) was requesting me to give them the phone's PUK code but obviously am not an idiot! So all what he's got now is the handset (newly bought at end of March this year, Motorola).

 

I am wondering if he can still use wifi or phone at all or getting into his contact list, txt messages or photos on there and be still walking away laughing with the handset with a different but same network sim card? Could he just get a new sim card on the same network and still use the phone? Can he have it unlocked and use with any sim card?

 

What happens if i report phone stolen to the police? Should I also tell them it is my ex-boyfriend who last had the phone? I want justice to be done and wouldn't bat an eyelash even if he gets nicked for it! But i also don't want to give grounds to him/them for starting some kinda 'slander' or 'false accusation' charges against me!

 

Can i legally do anything about chasing up payments for his living expenses while he lived with me or for the mobile bill he ran up and i paid for or maybe for a compensation for the handset as well?

[BazzaS]

I am wondering what happens if i report my ex-boyfriend's mobile phone stolen to the police?

 

The phone and monthly direct debit for it is on my name on my bank account. He has a recent criminal past and therefore he said he cannot have his own bank account, ID, passport or any possessions. He obviously did not pay me the monthly fees, only gave me the first month's charge that was charged to me after using phone for 7 days. He lived with me altogether for 3 months and at this point he was still with me. 3 weeks after he got the phone we fell out with each other and he moved out, said he'll stay with his sister for a while but in reality he moved to his ex-gf and he left me high and dry with his phone bills piled up over the following few weeks to £97.65. This amount is made up of another month's monthly charge plus 47 GBP in call charges that he ran up (not with me!). When I found out about this I asked the network to put on a barring on his outgoing calls and txts and to hold any payments to be taken from my account as I'm in the process of chasing up payments from him first. When i confronted him about the situation, he admitted being back under his ex's roof but kept saying he wants to come back to me and he has his financials too tangled up with his ex so he's trying to sort that out. Since then i was always asking him to pay the phone bills or give phone back to take the contract off my name but he did not do so, just kept making promises and kept saying he wants to keep seeing me, stay for the weekend with me, go on a day trip with me, etc. I met him a few times after he moved from me but he never gave me any money and as usual whenever I spent time with him, I always ended up spending my money on him mainly for food and alcohol. He has a job and his wages are going into his ex-gf's bank account, this was unknown to me until a few days ago i found at my place one of his payslips from this year january that he must have accidentally left behind when taking his stuff from me. His address on it is the ex-gf's address. He might have changed this to his parents' address by now, I wouldn't know that and i have no info what that address is. He is now in the clear in terms of being able to get a bank account and passport for himself, unless he did something stupid again after he moved out from me but that as well I wouldn't know about. He was a very lousy, lazy and expensive boyfriend to have and I never had intention spending money on him at all but he always found a way with me. He was also drinking a lot and intimidating my housemates for no good reason. He left me out of pocket quite a bit but i have no actual proof of any of that. He owes money even to this ex-gf for bail money, he owes money to his own parents for a lot of unpaid fines and charges from before when he lived with them and had a car on his name on their address (before going into prison).

Since am trying to chase up phone from him and bill payments, i have been contacting him on whatsapp mainly. Lately I have been refusing to 'see him to try to work things out between us' and told him he has to cough up money that he owes me. Then this week he started telling me to eff off when i asked him to pay up so i called the network and told them the issue, they advised to blacklist his nr and phone IMEI nr too, they also told me it is basically theft because he has refused to give phone back. Network then sent me a new sim card and I was able to transfer his phone's phone number onto this new sim card so now he only got the handset. Whatsapp and wifi was still working on his phone until I took over his phone nr so i messaged him last chance to pay up or give phone back. Then i was getting an answer that am sure his ex-gf was typing to me, threatening me with pressing harassment charges (would not stand on strong legs at all!) and was making contradicting claims that the phone was a gift (which it was not, in the general sense anyway but might be in the legal terms) then was saying the phone isn't his phone then said they'll let me know when they'll arrange the phone to be dropped off to me. I was asking for being a bit more specific but obviously nothing more was specified to give a time and date even just approximately. I also asked what form of communication is he gonna use to notify me about phone drop off coz his phone nr will stop working in a few days due to unpaid phone bills. No answer of course. I did keep all these messages when they started bringing up the harassment accusation but i got no proof of previous messages about just how many times he has been asking to see me and spend time with me but I have got some more txt messages from the past few weeks when i asked him for phone back and bill payments.

 

This week i have paid off his phone bills because the network was about to cancel the service and i would've been left with a bad credit to my name. He still wasn't agreeing to make a payment of any sort. He (or his ex-gf...) was requesting me to give them the phone's PUK code but obviously am not an idiot! So all what he's got now is the handset (newly bought at end of March this year, Motorola).

 

I am wondering if he can still use wifi or phone at all or getting into his contact list, txt messages or photos on there and be still walking away laughing with the handset with a different but same network sim card? Could he just get a new sim card on the same network and still use the phone? Can he have it unlocked and use with any sim card?

 

What happens if i report phone stolen to the police? Should I also tell them it is my ex-boyfriend who last had the phone? I want justice to be done and wouldn't bat an eyelash even if he gets nicked for it! But i also don't want to give grounds to him/them for starting some kinda 'slander' or 'false accusation' charges against me!

 

Can i legally do anything about chasing up payments for his living expenses while he lived with me or for the mobile bill he ran up and i paid for or maybe for a compensation for the handset as well?

 

Do you really think he'll pay up voluntarily based on events to date?

If not, then (small claims) County Court would be your other option : which involves two issues:

1) if he claims it is a gift, it would come down to who a court believed most.

2) Even if you succeeded in a claim : would you be able to enforce a judgement? If he is using other people's bank accounts he may be able to claim no assets and limited income.

 

It is your choice but do you go down the lba and court route, OR "cut your losses", and just be glad you won't waste any more time & money on him, and didn't end up married to him?

 

Blocking his SIM was wise : you may still have the contract to pay but not extra for calls he could make.

Blocking the phone's IMEI would stop him (or anyone else if he sold it ) using it as a phone (calls, data & texts over GSM) by putting a new SIM in. He can still use data / apps on the handset if it has wi-fi, as this is independant of IMEI.

Of course, this may be an option to use an app to message him to let him know the IMEI has been blocked .

He could sell it / export it to a country that doesn't use the register of blocked IMEI numbers, but you still get the satisfaction of making things more difficult for him.

[steampowered]

The basic legal problem here is that you agreed to become liable for the mobile phone costs. There is no automatic right to recover that from the boyfriend. You would only have a legal claim if he agreed to reimburse you for the cost of the contract.

 

A verbal agreement could be legally enforceable, but it doesn't sound like he would have any assets to pay you anyway.

 

You could make a police report, but as you let him have the phone I imagine the police will say it is a civil matter. Although I guess the police might contact him which could encourage him to return the phone.