advice re Stolen Provident payments

Dave71_2

HI

i had a loan with provident - was paying £50 a wek on it over 52 weeks - 5 years on i still have a balance of £700 to pay !!! admittedly after about 4 months i dropped to only paying £20 - £25 a month but never the less even paying half it should of only lasted 2 years and not 5.

Recently our collector changed and he told us that the lass who was collecting from us has recently been charged with fraud after essentially pocketing the money she had collected from people to the tune of £35k.

Now at the time it never seemed out of the ordinary when she turned up and took our books away for auditing - or when she would turn up and say im in a rush so ill sort out your books in the car or later etc - But after the fraud came to light and the fact it has taken so long to pay off this loan - we have a feeling that she has had a fair amount of the cash we payed back and we foolishly didnt notice at the time.

so- ANy advice on what to do about this - is it worth contacting Provident and get them to do something about it - or should i just get on with paying and learn from my mistake not to constantly check the book etc.

Dave

**Amy**

Hi

I would speak to someone professional about this, after all, what harm could it do. Do you have bank records or anything that show you got the money out for the lady when she came round? I wouldnt just ignore it as if you really did pay the money, its worth investigating, rather than just paying it again, plus she has been found out re: fraud, so its worth speaking to provident.

You may also want to speak to Citizens Advice or someone similar to see if they know legally where you stand.

HTH

xxx

Dave71_2

the proof is where the problem lies

I have no doubt in my mind that she had away with some of our cash

She was very chatty - like a friend would be - so when she took the books away and then didnt have time to explain what had been done to them , or when she took the cash and said ill fill in the book next week or sort it later etc - we didnt even bat an eyelid.

In hindsight i know we should of checked and double checked everything but im sure most of you know how it is - we were glad we had got the money in the first place, thankfull that she had said its fine to only pay half the amount when we were skint etc.


Dave

**Amy**

I would still speak to Provident and posibly CA. You dont loose anything by speaking to them. Might actually be worth writing Provident a letter, stating what you paid, and when you paid it. Nothing ventured....

xxxx

cat4772

Dave - why are you not thinking of talking to the local police and their fraud department. If your former collector has been dismissed for £35K fraud, then the police may be pulling evidence to charge / prosecute her.

I'd talk to Provident but mention that you are going to ask the police to look into this as you think that you should have paid your debt by now. You never know, Provident may agree and wipe off the debt for you.

Good luck.

Dave71_2

contacting the police had never even crossed my mind but i think your right - may well be a good idea thanks

concerned43

I think this one is easy to prove - i.e. Provident would need to prove you did not pay. Your books are not the only paper trail Provident have for their transactions and if you had missed two payments then the collectors supervisor would be in touch with you to discuss your account - this is standard practise.
Therefore, I would think that the collector has been keeping the internal audit up to date and maybe took one payment here and there to avoid detection from her supervisor.
This really is not your problem but Providents. I would notify them in writing that you have kept your account up to date and trust that their internal fraud issue will have no impact on you, otherwise you will take this matter further!

Tixy

Dave have you posted this before under a different user name?
Only if you didn't then someone else had an almost identical situation a while back - and if there are 2 people with the same problem maybe you have more hope of proving this is what happened.

Anyway aside from that I agree you need to write to provident along the lines concerned has said above, as well as contact the police.

Dave71_2

Hi Tixy

NOpe not posted before regarding this problem- used to post ages ago under a different username but lost login details and that was waaaay before this happened.

I shall have a search and see if i can come up with the other thread

Dave71_2

right then, i visited the local provident office to try and get some more info and see what could be done about it and it was "odd" to say the least.

When we mentoned that we had heard wha had happened the provident managers response was essentialy that we were too late to do anything about it as it happened months and months ago and we should of made a complaint then - Quite how we were to know what had happened to put in a complaint gawd only knows lol.

Anyway she appeared quite edgy about it and was quite insistant that we were too late to do anything about it but she didnt go into any detail as to what had happened etc.

We came home and googled and found the story - the agent had apparently taken out £38k loans under false names approx 2 years ago hen hubby lost job and she had paid back £11k when she was caught in august 09 - she was sentenced to 4 months suspended.

On the face of it, it appears to be the crime was against provident rather than her customers but what doesnt add up (in my mind) is £38k worth of loans would of had a weekly repayment of around £800 + ..... so where did the money come from to repay £11k and why was the manager so jumpy / insistent that it was too late for us to do anything when she could have quelled the rumour / worry by just explaining that the fraud did not involve any of her customers ?

Anyway - I dont think i'll get anywhere with this but I have sent a letter to head office explaining out concern and asking for a statements etc so will see where we get.

Sorry for the long post lol, Dave

honeybear68

Hi Dave

I am an ex provi agent, I would reccomend that you diffinately speak to the police taking all the information you have, you have done the right thing in writing to head office about this, do you still have you books as these are part of an essential record as your agent should have filled these in in front of you, also get a statement of every loan and transaction you have made or recieved, with this you can build a picture, you wouldn't of been the only one she has done this to, I urg you to take this further she has still stolen I will also speak to my friend as she is still an agent for them I'm sure I can a bit more infor, please feel free to PM me if you wish. I would be happy to help where i can.