A right mess and my fault!! Help please - UPDATED

Wig

ts_aly2000 wrote:

An analagy;

What if you sold a car, and mistakingly left your phone in the glove compartment? And then the buyer ran a huge bill up on your phone. That would be classed as theft since the phone was clearly not for sale and a mistake.

That's it!! "Receiving goods or services to which you are not rightfully entitled"

Big problem - below the age of responsibility under 16.

Mmmm ok, next door neighbour has an open wireless connection...... If anyone uses it they can be prosecuted, receiving goods or services to which they are not rightfully entitled.

Do they? That would be convienient!

Turning_into_scrooge

I had a mobile with O2 that was stolen out of my house 18 months ago. At the time i was ill and didn't know the phone had gone untill i received a letter from O2 telling me of high call usage to the tune of over £300. As far as O2 were concerned because the police wern't informed within 24 hours of the phone going missing it was my problem, it was also my problem that O2 didnt transfer the insurance over to consumer rates from business rates. I ended up having to pay the bill, O2 did nothing as the bill was in my name i was liable. I wish you the best of luck with this but i wouldn't hold out much hope.

SkippyB

Criminal Age of responsibility is 10 not 16 years......Will be very hard to prove a criminal offence on this one!! There are many defences that can be used by the person with the phone....seek advice from CAB and hope......!!!

dribsndrabs

blatisingh wrote:

the guy didnt purchase the contract just the phone

the sim was sent by mistake!!!

A transaction is a contract in itself

Epiphone

This is confusing, let me see if I can make sense of it.
Person A bought your phone.
Person B confiscated a phone from a pupil which was then stolen
Person A advised Person B to purchase a replacement on eBay
Person A purchased your phone and gave it to Person B
Person B gave the phone to Child C

You have now received a large bill. You have informed Person A who has informed Person B who now needs to discuss this with their department head.

OK, first things first. How did you terminate the contract with Orange? Did you receive written notification from them that the contract was terminated? If not, it is your responsibility to make sure the SIM card isn't active regardless of the fact the handset has changed hands.

Your eBay sale didn't include a contract or airtime. Forget Person B. You made the sale to Person A. As an adult they could be expected to realise free calls aren't included. If they gave the phone to someone else it's not your problem. Keep a hard copy of your auction for reference.

Phone Orange. Cancel the SIM. Speak to the police and give them the full story. Explain you were confused and didn't have all the facts before. It isn't theft as theft is the intention to permantly deprive a person of their property. The Child C has done what a kid would and gone nuts on a freebie.

You need to recover the money (or make an arrangement) with Person A who purchased the phone. Any other arrangement on who currently owns the phone is their business. As far as I can see the department head is nothing to do with it and smacks of delaying tactics.

You may not get any/all of your money back. The police may be able to advise or you may have to see a solicitor.

Good luck with however it turns out.

edthedead

As stated above the age of criminal responsibility it 10.

There is no theft of the sim card since they have not dishonestly appropriated it, you sent it to them in error. They have then used it, knowing that it was not theirs to use, this is dishonest and could constitute a criminal offence (similar to abstraction of electricity/copyright – you can steal something you cannot see).

However, I would be very surprised if the police get involved, they will say that it is a civil matter. Your issue is with who ever brought the phone, i.e. who ever controls the EBAY account and paid for the item, however they are not the person who has run up the bill… I think you need to speak to a solicitor!

coolio_2

Poor Person A was only trying to help someone out.

I would call the child and say 'I know you have been messing about with your 11 year old gf, I will tell your parents, scare him into parting with his life savings lol

IvanOpinion

Am I the only persons whose brain is hurting here ... it is better than an episode of Coronation Street .. can't wait for the next instalment

Ivan

haveagoade

This running up of a bill, using a sim card not owned by a person is theft. The question is ..........who is the person and what can be done about it.

IN This case its the child, so persue the parents!

Any responsible parent is gonna want to sort this out, without it getting out of hand!

There is no excuse for the childs actions, and if the child will not take responsibility for this, then its the parents duty to.

haveagoade

There are two seperate distict items here.

1. The Phone
2. The sim.

The sim was never sold, and can be proved so.Under terms and conditions of a contract sim, you cannot sell or transfer them.

The sim has come into the hands of someone and been used dishonestly.

Whatever the law says about the child acting in this way, ie obtaining goods / service via deception, is what really matters.

As I said above, get the Police to talk to the parents and see what they say, firstly.