Lowell/BW claimform - old Vanquis card - a case of fraud ***Claim Dismissed***

[josborn]

Name of the Claimant ? Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd

 

Date of issue –

 

What is the claim for –

1.The Claimant's claim is for the amount of £800 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant, under a Store Cards, Credit Cards agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Vanquis Bank Plc under account reference xxxxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on 14/04/14 notice of which has been given to the Defendant.

2. The Defendant has failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

3. The claim also includes the statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum (a daily rate of £0.16p from the date of assignment of the agreement to 14/04/14 being an amount of £60).

What is the value of the claim? £950

 

Is the claim for - a Bank Account (Overdraft) or credit card or loan or catalogue or mobile phone account? Credit card

 

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After

 

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor

or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Debt collector

 

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? The account was opened at a different address to mine. I lived at this address about 20 years ago but have moved twice since then. I received a debt collector letter in 2013 for this and I wrote and said they have the wrong person but I did not hear a thing until March this year when I got a County Court summons.

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? No

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? No

 

Why did you cease payments? I have never made any payments (neither has the person who opened this account)

 

What was the date of your last payment? None

 

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Yes, its not my account

 

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management? No

 

 

Hi,

 

I am looking for any advice that I can get. TIA.

 

I have copied the bit from the sticky and put my information in and posted it below.

I have filed the defence and done all that I can.

 

 

The case will be in court in a couple of weeks time.

I am not nervous about the court bit,

I wanted to check to see if anyone has any advice as it is a fraudulent account.

 

 

I have reported it to the police via action fraud website and told BW Legal about this, but they are not listening.

I have proof that the address the account was started out is not mine etc

but they are not responding to any of the points that I am making.

 

The main question that I have is:

the account was started by someone using my maiden name.

The account was started in 2012.

I got married in 2003.

Should I tell BW Legal that they are using my name wrong?

[Sidewinder]

Lowell/BWL will not be in the slightest bit interested in details such as the account being in a maiden name or a card being issued to a long-departed address. They want money - pure and simple and my guess is that this will not get near to a Court hearing once they realise that it will be a non-starter in front of a Judge

 

Have you sent a CCA request and a CPR 31.14 request for the relevant paperwork? Probably also worth sending a SAR to Vanquis

[dx100uk]

what stage of the claim are you at - have you've exchanged witness statements yet?

what date is the hearing..

[josborn]

Hi Sidewinder, thank you.

 

I sent a Data Request to Lowell but they ignored it completely.

 

I sent it recorded delivery and included a £10 cheque.

 

They signed for the letter but did not cash the cheque.

 

I chased it up a month later with Lowell and BW Legal both those letters were signed for and ignored.

I have used the post receipts in my defence which I filed a couple of weeks ago.

 

BW Legal sent their witness statement saying Lowell would not be in court but their representative will be.

They also sent screenshots of the credit card application.

 

All of the information was wrong (employment, email, phone number etc).

The only slightly correct information is my old address and my maiden name.

I included a copy of my tenancy agreement in my defence as this shows that I moved into my current address before the card was applied for at my old address.

I am amazed that whoever got the card was accepted!

 

I did not report the account to Action Fraud until the start of this month, because I did not have any real information until I got the witness statement and documents from BW Legal.

 

I thought that they would drop the case after I reported it to the police, but they haven't.

I would think that this will go all the way now as they have paid the court fee.

I am just hoping the court believe me.

[josborn]

Hi Dx,

 

 

sorry you must have replied whilst I was typing my reply.

[dx100uk]

so you've filed your witness statement??

old address fraud under maiden name is extremely common

 

most go undetected and a default judgement is gained.

 

which is why DCA's file about 800'000 speculative claimforms a years

its a numbers game

 

not sure where you go the idea that an sar was the thing to do?

we've never said that here

always CCA/CPR.

[josborn]

Hi Dx,

 

 

thanks.

I have filed my witness statement.

They sent theirs a couple of weeks before they were due so I managed to go through theirs to make mine as detailed as possible.

 

I only found this site recently so I had sent a Data Request because I thought that was the way to get the information.

 

What would a CCA/CPR get me?

Would it just be the application details?

[dx100uk]

well not to matter just for future readers really re: CCA/CPR

ideally your SAR should have gone to the original creditor

to prove they failed to carry out due diligence when allowing a successful application to an address you left 20yrs ago!!

 

likewise though, i'm a bit troubled that you cant have ever gotten your credit file as if this has been running since 2012

you would have spotted this in 2012 or at least since.

 

proving you were living elsewhere at the time of application is not really gonna hold much weight esp if you get judge lottery.

 

can you scan up to ONE MULTIPAGE PDF

their WS inc exhibits

and

your WS inc exhibits

 

and your defence

 

please read the UPLOAD

 

when is your hearing please too

[Sidewinder]

What would a CCA/CPR get me?

Would it just be the application details?

 

The CCA might have got an application form with a signature on (which would hopefully look nothing like yours) - although it may well have been an online application. A CPR should have supplied all documents referred to in the Particulars Of Claim including Default Notice etc.

 

How did the Claim Form end up with you? Presumably all paperwork would originally have gone to the address held on the account?

 

Are the police investigating as any goods ordered would have gone to the account address so they should be able to establish who was living there at the time?

 

I still say that this will get to a couple of days before the hearing date and you will get a Notice of Discontinuance - you may even arrive at Court to find nobody there and they have discontinued on the day. Others are much wiser than I but I think you would have grounds to apply for costs

[josborn]

Hi Dx,

 

 

I will try scanning the statements into a one page PDF and add them on.

I have looked at my credit reference files.

They don't have the debt on them

(I assume it is because it is in my maiden name which changed so long ago).

[josborn]

Hi Sidewinder,

 

I am not sure how they got my actual address.

 

I doubt the person who really had the card would have updated it.

 

They did not make any payments or anything, by the look of it they just used the card then ignored the bills.

 

I did hear about it in 2013 from a debt collection company (I think they were called BPO).

 

I wrote back to them questioning their letter, but when I heard no more I assumed it had been a mistake.

[dx100uk]

BPO are lowells

they got your details from your credit file..

[dx100uk]

its a real shame the credit file system doesn't pick this type of fraud up and alert people

but simply allows it to happen but helps the DCA get backdoor CCJ's and the likes of what you are suffering.

[josborn]

Thank you.

 

 

Sorry it took me a while to reply, I was editing the paperwork so I can upload it. I think it is on here for you to see now.

defendents WS.pdf

claimants WS.pdf

[dx100uk]

shame you've not mentioned its maiden name fraud at a 20yrs old address anywhere.

what address is on the DN and NOA

your current or the old one

[josborn]

Hi Dx,

 

 

I did tell them as soon as they sent me the details that it is the wrong address. I have not said it is my maiden name as I was not sure if it was the right thing to do as they are suing me in my maiden name.

 

 

The DN (is that default notice?) was to my old address and the NOA (notice of allocation of the sale of debt?) was to my old address too.

[dx100uk]

then it appears to me their WS is wrong as they say the DN and NOA was posted to the address you've used in your defence / WS?

 

 

I will assume the claimform was served to your current address too and all they've done is used your maiden name

so they know something is up

what address was on the copy of the supposed agreement? your old address?

 

 

so someones trying to pull the wool here and its not you.

 

 

did your WS exhibits include all the documents you've sent them since day one

so essentially covers the fraud issue as its mentioned in those letters that they chose to ignore?

[josborn]

Hi Dx,

 

 

yes the courts claimform came to my current address.

Everything is in my maiden name (they have not used my married name on anything).

 

 

I attached absolutely everything to my witness statement.

All of the letters that I have sent, including the one to BPO in 2013 and the ones to Lowell and BW Legal since they started the claim.

 

 

I have even attached the post receipts to prove that I sent them the letters.

They are saying that I have not contacted them so I wanted the court to see they are lying about that too.

[fkofilee]

HI Josborn

 

I have read their WS - They really are a nasty piece of work BW Legal - In the last 8 months i have had 2 run ins with them myself - Not legal proceedings like you but in the forms of complaints etc

I recieved a response back along the lines of the below;

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]69141[/ATTACH]

 

The reason why i tell you this is because then you can see just how bad they can be. You have shown in your Witness Statement that you have made regular contact with them and they have ignored it. Their WS is just really nasty.

 

You are in good hands with DX and i cant see this going far at all. I believe DX is right and they are having you on.

 

Keep strong and dont let them wear you down

[unclebulgaria67]

You might not have gone about this the correct way and have ended up making it more complicated, but you have provided enough information in defending your claim, to hopefully ensure Lowell withdraw it.

 

I can't see the point in any court hearing.

But then in another similar case to yours they did proceed and stupidly the defendant did not attend the hearing so lost by default.

 

Lowells/BW Legal often don't bother responding to correspondence and i believe Lowell got reprimanded by regulators a few years ago about this. My experience in dealing with a relatives debt, is that they admitted not responding to letters and said they just filed them away. They paid compensation and wrote off any debts.

 

Had you contacted Vanquis the first time you had any idea of a fraudulent credit account being taken out in your name, you could have resolved this. There would have been a process including reporting it to Action Fraud, where the matter could have been subject to investigation.

 

It is always the original creditor that is responsible for allowing the fraud.

Debt Collection Agencies just chase debts from a spreadsheet and know very little, trying to blag a profit.

[josborn]

Thanks Fliko, what they wrote to you is horrible.

I hope you managed to take your complaint to a regulator or ombudsman

(I don't know which).

 

 

Hi Uncle, I am a fool for not contacting Vanquis.

I thought there had been a mistake when I wrote back to BPO in 2013 and when they didn't reply I thought they had realised it was a mistake and didn't do anything else.

 

The next debt collector letter that I received was from BW Legal to say that they had already started the court action

(their letter came a couple of days after the court one,

it was dated the same day as the court action)

 

. By then I didn't contact Vanquis because it was Lowell who were suing me.

 

I have contacted action fraud and reported it.

I got a confirmation email

I am waiting to hear anymore from them.

It was only a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

BW Legal have paid the court fee so I guess it is definitely going to trial.

Its the week after next.

 

They paid the fee before they sent their witness statement,

which is the first time I actually got any real information from them.

 

If they had given me more before this I could have contacted action fraud sooner or worked with Lowell in mediation.

Its so frustrating.

[fkofilee]

Take your actionfraud reference with you in case it is asked... They really are going to shoot themselves int he foot

[dx100uk]

When is the hearing please

[josborn]

I will do Fko.

 

 

Dx the hearing is a week tomorrow.

[dx100uk]

Good week away now I can see me screen better sorry

Await andyorch to pop in

Plenty of time for that

And to sort things

 

Dx