Was conned - need to clear £14,000 ASAP!!

number25

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this message or not but I need HELP and I'm not sure where to begin. Basically I knew this guy for a few years who I really, really trusted.... a few months ago he asked to borrow about £13,500 from me as a loan that he would pay back within 2 months (he was expecting some money to come through...) and I believed him - I know reading this now everyone will be screaming out he's nothing but a con... BUT in my defence all I can say is that I tried to help out a mate who I did trust and up until now he gave me NO reason to doubt him. Anyway I took out a loan with Abbey and was accepted on 14.9% APR over a 60 month period.

Now this person has disappeared on me with no contact at all. It's been 2 months since I heard anything and I have to face facts It's going to be a long and difficult struggle to retrieve anything from him (or is it anyone?).

I am now panicking as I can't afford to pay over £19,000 inc. interest over 5yrs - that's tooo painful! I've managed to make the first installment of about £333 but need some advice as to how I can clear this debt ASAP or atleast have the interest charge reduced or something...

Any help/ guidance will be much appreciated. By-the-way i've considered taking out another loan that may decrease my interest rate but I have just checked my credit score and it is offfically POOR so I don't think I'll be able to get a good rate.

I eagerly await a response.

sgx.saint

Has he paid you anything? Did anyone witness your agreement? I don't suppose you had a contract?

I could be wrong, but without any of the above and even with some of the above you will find it difficult to make him pay you.

At the end of the day, you signed the credit agreement and it was loaned to you on that basis.

Perhaps if it was witness or something you may be able to take some form of legal action but I am not to sure.

Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this.

DramaQueen29

oo heck, i hope you did get something signed from him, if not theres no proof that he had the money from the loan you took out.
Hope it works out for you

Willsnarf1983

why did he want the money?

and if its verbal you must have paid a transfer or something into his account so why not goto the police and inform them?

Will

lynzpower

do you knwo where he lives.

you can issue a summons via court - but my feeling is its the small claims court, and theres a top limit of 5k there.

I dont know, maybe Xbigman/ clapton/ file wizzard will be able to help more, but as far as I understand it you took the loan in your name and thus you are liable.

Millionare

If there's no written agreement and you handed him cash and no witnesses then i think you are liable considering you took out the loan and signed the agreement.

what did he buy with the money, or what did he do with it?

Millionare

If there's no written agreement and you handed him cash and no witnesses then i think you are liable considering you took out the loan and signed the agreement.

what did he buy with the money, or what did he do with it?

Seaxwyn

You poor thing, I do sympathise. It must be miserable to have to deal with the feelings of betrayal, anger, regret and the rest, at the same time as facing up to this huge debt.

But don't worry, people here have paid off lots more than 14k and you can too. Of course pursue the missing friend - but if he has well and truly gone, don't despair, you will be OK.

Post your SOA on here and people will help you find ways of paying off that 14k much faster than over 60 months.

Good luck

Seaxwyn

number25

He said he wanted to buy a car that he would then sell...

I took out the loan and transferred the whole amount into his cousins Abbey account from where he withdrew all of it as cash asap - he must be on their cctv as he went with the cousin.... so i do have some proof of actually giving him the money. I have consulted a solicitor and their might be a good case here BUT solicitors charge £100's/ hour in fees and I CAN'T afford that at all as this is not a small claims court case either. I am considering going to the police but I feel all they will say is that this is a civil matter...

Bottom line still is that it was ME who took out this loan for him and hence it's me who is liable, please correct me if i'm wrong and advise of the best method forward from here.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

oscar52

You say you have consulted a Solicitor, who says there could be grounds for a good case, if so, why not consult another Solicitor, as a second opinion - but go to a NO WIN NO FEE, that way, they have to be really honest about your chances otherwise they get no money. I wouldnt pay a solicitor on the off chance you may get some back.

GettingThingsDone

That's absolutely terrible - really feel sorry for you.

What kind of a friend were they? Someone you knew and trusted as a mate, or someone who might be a bit of a regular con artist.

Worth telling the police anyway - they may already be on his trail if he's been up to this kind of thing before. If he's genuinely 'hiding' then he sounds like he knows what he's doing...

Also, by escalating it you might then be able to get Abbey to save cctv footage and hand it over to the police - I'm sure this will have triggered anti-money laundering checks, so they'll have to have had some decent id.

£14k won't get anybody that far, so I'd imagine it will be possible to track him down...