Is this a criminal offence...

penguinSmall

... or do I just have to put up and shut up which is more or less what the copper that came out told me?

I moved on January 4th, handed keys back to letting agent on the 12th. Pleased to be rid as they bullied me into selling stuff on ebay to pay the rent before my housing benefit was due with threats of two months notice to quit when I wasn't even a month in arrears but that's another story.

In April or thereabouts I get a letter from a debt collection agency saying I owe Scottish Power £81 odd for gas. Phone Scottish Power and explain I wasn't a customer of theirs at my old address. They said the bill was run up between February and April so I gave them the letting agents address and phone number and explained we parted on bad terms and I suspected they were playing silly !!!!!!s.

Now last Saturday I got a letter from SRJ Debt Recovery saying they'd traced me to this address and asking me to phone. I did but they refused to talk to me about the account because they had a different date of birth for me to my own and they'd be breaching the data protection act by disclosing details of the account to me. Yesterday I got a letter from them saying I owe Scottish Power £78.44, I guess they decided breaching the data protection act wasn't such a big deal after all.

I've read about SRJ on here so I phoned Scottish Power direct and was told someone had signed a doorstep contract in my name with a fake date of birth on January 18th at me former address for electricity. The letting agent had people working in the house from January through to the end of March and they'd need gas and electricity.

I called the police assuming this was a criminal offence and the officer said it isn't. Anybody can use my name if they want. It's a civil matter speak to a lawyer. I did, he said "Whoa there! That's not harassment, that's a criminal offence" I explained what the copper said and the lawyer replied "That's copper speak for we can't be arsed to deal with this shut up and go away."

Scottish Power immediately put the letting agents name on the electricity account as well. When I said that I suspected all that would happen when they contacted the letting agent would be that the letting agent would lie and tell them it's my bill. The lady on the phone looked at the gas account and said "Yup, that's exactly what they're doing." I'm being told there's no offence because it hasn't cost me money, but I thought passing yourself off as someone else was illegal.

I'm not losing out financially, Scottish Power aren't going to chase me for the debt. But I want something done with the letting agent. They knew I was a single parent with mental health issues and bullied me mercilessly for three and a half years while I was a tenant. They harassed me after I left for £242.28 which I repeatedly sent them paperwork to prove I didn't owe them. I had to get a solicitor to tell them to back off in the end and now this.

I had a nervous breakdown while we were moving and something like this to a clinically depressed person could mean the difference between suicide and living and if they're doing it to me, they're doing, or have done it, to others. I don't believe it can be legal but the police tell me nothing can be done to stop them.

Azari

I don't know about the specifics of a case like this but you cannot pass yourself of as someone else in an attempt to, for example, obtain goods or services and evade paying for them.

You should contact you local CAB who would be able to give you better advice or put you in touch with someone else who could.

crazyguy

Agree with Azari,

You could also send them a letter with a 7 or 14 day notice to resolve this prior to a legal action they may then not want the hassle and deal with this, does seem that they are a incompetent crowd so could equaly just disreguard a letter you send.

I would go the letter route though as you may save yourself time and hassle with the CAB and a Solicitor.

shaun_from_Africa

Definitely a criminal offence.
This link will show you exactly what offence was committed.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/2

penguinSmall

Cheers dudes. I've printed off what Shaun directed me to and if this mythical police supervisor ever actually phones me about my complaint about what the PC who came out said I shall read it to him verbatim :T

shortchanged_2

Agree with Shaun, this is definately a criminal offence, pretending to be someone else in order to obtain goods or services is fraud.

I wonder how they would view it if I pretended to be David Cameron and tried to get into 10 Downing Street one day?

dmg24

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Definitely a criminal offence.
This link will show you exactly what offence was committed.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/2

Spot on - the Act changed a few years ago and the police don't seem to have caught onto this, which is a shame as it covers far more incidents than it did previously.

Let us know how you get on penguinSmall.

pmduk

Many police forces have decided that in order to reduce crime it is easier to not record offences in the first place.

shaun_from_Africa

I wonder how they would view it if I pretended to be David Cameron and tried to get into 10 Downing Street one day?

Provided that you didn't intend to gain financially or to cause loss to someone else, I doubt if the fraud act would cover it.
However, for pretending to be David Cameron, you may be charged under this bit of legislation:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1983/20/contents

MothballsWallet

Or, you could try the Community Legal Advice Service (CLAS) - more details here.

They can help by email too, which not all CAB branches are able to do, sadly.

vax2002

The police are having a lot of difficulty lately "Policing" they are so pre-occupied with trying to grab as many rights away from the public as possible that minor things such as crime appear to have been forgotten.