Being pursued by BT for fraudulent debt

B32MONEY

Hi

I hope the forum can offer some advice...

My fianc!e recently received a letter from a debt recovery agency acting on behalf of BT.

She is being pursued for a phone bill debt of £450 at an address in Cumbria dating back 4 years. She has no knowledge of the account or address, especially as she's live in Birmingham for the past 11 years! We believe the bill has been fraudulently run up in her name.

In an effort to get the recovery agency (Advantis) off her back, council tax details were requested from Birmingham Council which stated the address and time from 4 years ago where council tax was paid. The recovery agent has since written back saying this is unacceptable proof as she was not the council tax account holder (she was renting a room off a friend).

In a further bid to clear her name, she has attempted to report the fraud to our local police, West Midlands Police. However, they are not interested and have told her that the matter should be reported to the local police in Cumbria police, where the 'offence' took place. Is that correct procedure?

She has now received further correspondence from the recovery agency threatening debt recovery measures such as a CCJ and bailiffs.

What can my fianc!e do to clear her name? Can anyone offer some advice? It getting her quite upset and stressed.

Thanks in advance, B32MONEY

Eager_Elephant

The police will only be interested if someone has lost money - so if your girlfriend has had a DD taken from her bank to pay some of the bill then this is fraud but if she has lost no money it is not. (This is what one of my clients as told when she had something similar)

I think the best thing for her to do is to contact Advantis by letter and state that this is a fraudulent account and she has reported the matter to BT and she expects no further action to be taken on this account until the complaint has been resolved.

Then she needs to contact BT complaints department and make a formal complaint. This should then be passed to their fraud department to investigate.

They will probably ask for proof of her address to tie in with when the account was opened to prove she did not live there.

EE