Cheated!

ldsrs

A few years ago, unknown to me, my husband loaned £40,000 to a 'friend' with borrowed money (friend supposed to invest it in a business). He ran off with the money. Husband confessed to me what he'd done. We took 'friend' to court in Germany and won the case; he then appealed, but we won the case again. He then went 'underground' somewhere in Germany. Now we're paying it all back (along with a debt my husband already had). It seems unfair that we're having to pay this criminal's debts.
Any advice? Day to day living is very tough.

By the way, it cost us near £5,000 extra to take him to court and appeal

castri09_2

:grouphug:heres a hug, i feel for you i expect someone will be along with some wise words

ldsrs

Hey, thanks for your sympathy. :smileyhea

vaporate

Didn't want to read and run.

My opinion:

The fact that your husband gave the money to someone will never hold up in court as the person, criminal, who took the money will say it was a gift. No signed agreement ect.

I know it is not what you want to hear. It is for these very reasons that I would never lend to anyone, even if they were stranded.

savingmummy

I`m so sorry this happened to you

The debt you are paying off, Was it in your husbands name or the `friends`?

As he is untraceable i have no advise, is your solicitor still involved? what has they advised?

Ms_Chocaholic

Could you try and trace him through a private detective

Poosmate

vaporate wrote: »

Didn't want to read and run.

My opinion:

The fact that your husband gave the money to someone will never hold up in court as the person, criminal, who took the money will say it was a gift. No signed agreement ect.

I know it is not what you want to hear. It is for these very reasons that I would never lend to anyone, even if they were stranded.

Did you stop reading after the first two lines?

They took the crim to court in Germany - and WON!

The crim appealed and they WON that too.

Now the crim has done a disappearing act!

Sorry Ids can't really add any more than what's already been said except, does your husband have any friends in common with this bloke? If so does the other friend know what's happened and would they possibly know where this crim has gone to? Had the crim ever spoken of any places in Germany before? I'm just wondering why he fled to Germany, has he got history there? Family? Friends?

Hope you catch up with him one day.

Poo

vaporate

Poosmate wrote: »

Did you stop reading after the first two lines?

They took the crim to court in Germany - and WON!

The crim appealed and they WON that too.

Now the crim has done a disappearing act!

Sorry Ids can't really add any more than what's already been said except, does your husband have any friends in common with this bloke? If so does the other friend know what's happened and would they possibly know where this crim has gone to? Had the crim ever spoken of any places in Germany before? I'm just wondering why he fled to Germany, has he got history there? Family? Friends?

Hope you catch up with him one day.

Poo

I know that...

Won what exactly? Considering no contract was signed I'm surprised they won at all, no offence to the Op as this clearly is a sickening act towards the op.

I stick with my previous post

ldsrs

He lives in Germany - married to a German woman. The guy did the same to several others, although we're the only ones who took him to court. Yes, we used a solicitor - had to be German and able to communicate reasonably well in English. Even though I have a degree in German, judicial language too hard for me to cope with. We have several German friends who are fluent in English and who helped. As you can imagine, the solicitor's fees were pretty high.

SouthCoast

The guy did the same to several others,

If the friend is a criminal have you all made complaints to the German Police?

GeorgeUK

Don't know if there's a way to enforce the debt through the courts by getting the equivalent of a charging order on any assets or arrestment of his wages, but something like that would be worth looking at.

There was new legislation (i've not looked at it) that makes it easier to pursue indiciduals in other EU countries for debt. Will try to find out what that was.

Edit: European Order for Payment
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/judicial_cooperation_in_civil_matters/l16023_en.htm

You may need to get legal advice on this or ask on a forum such as lealbeagles or consumeractiongroup. I'm afraid i know nothing of this or how it is enforced.