Any advice on fraudulent loans

Poodge

Hi, Just wondered if anyone has got any advice on a situation I have. In Feb 2004 my then wife took out a loan for £25000 with HFC bank in my name. I was totally unaware of this at the time as my wife signed all the documents in my name. Money was paid into our joint account but again I was unaware of this as my then wife was very clever at concealing this through various methods. In June 2005 we seperated and my finally divorced in April 2006. During the time we were seperated I was still unaware of the loan but was paying her maintenance every month. Since divorcing my wife I've been made aware of the existance of the loan. I have been to the police who confirmed it's not my signatures on the ducumentation but HFC have continued to demand payment. In May 2007 I was written to by HFC to say I had exhausted their internal complaints procuedure and advising me to either pay the debt or make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I did begin to lodge a complaint with the FOS but decided to instruct a solicitor to discuss the debts with HFC. Frankly he was not very pro-active and did little than send a few letters out.

In 2010 I decided to contact the FOS again and follow through my complaint. I provided evidance that I had not signed the documentation along with transcripts of conversations that I could prove did not take place. Also there were a number of irregularities which I asked to be taken into consideration. My judgement came back from the FOS last week. My complaint was rejected as I did not make a full complaint within 6 months of HFC writing to me in May 2007 and also because I cannot tell the FOS what the loan was used to pay (obviously as I didn't know of its existance) they cannot be sure i didn't benefit from the loan. There seems to be no consideration given to any of the evidence I supplied.

I would have hoped to be statute barred but I am told my ex wife made some payments in 2005 when we seperated. My solicitor suggested the I should just go bankrupt as it would be less "hassle" I want to avoid that.

Any advice please?

GeorgeUK

There is a grey area in my understanding of the statute barred legalities. If you have never made a payment towards the debt and the debt is your name only - not a joint debt, then how can the debt not be statute barred? You have not made a payment towards the debt for over 6 years. I think that is one that would need to be argued in court though.

Did you make a complaint to the police about the fraud? If not then that is probably why the bank is still pursuing you. Did you supply them with a 'crime number' (not sure if that's what it's called).

Are they taking action against you right now? It sounds like the debt may become statute barred this year if the last payment was in 2005 - it should be SB now if you are in Scotland.