Scared of arrest over debt... urgent help!

growingolder

Hi, I have been looking through this forum and find it really useful but hope someone can answer a very specific thing.

A few years ago, 2009 to be exact I was doing ok had house with mortgage and various cards, loans etc but all was good. I was working and earning well and everything was manageable.

To cut a very long story short I went through all kinds of hell. My partner became really sick and this forced me to work less which resulted in my business folding. I moved away with my other half for medical reasons but could not keep up payments on things for very long.

I went into serious depression in 2011 and up until this point i had been in contact with all creditors (including the house which got reposessed with a 40k shortfall). I was moving around as didnt have a permanent place but they had a contact address for me and i was regularly in touch. Things like mortgage shortfalls were put on hold while i sorted myself out but life got really bad.

The credit card companies seemed to keep passing the debts from one firm to another and by the time i managed to write letters to one i would receive a letter form another company about the same debt "we have now got this debt" and had to keep going round and round.

I had a car on finance which i sold and paid off and this immediately triggered the house reposession ppl to apply for an attachment of earnings which i received although i did reply to the court to explain i was not working and living overseas (by then i had moved to stay with friends abroad) and the cancelled this as i was not working so it could not go ahead.

After this i went downhill, ended up on depression pills and hit rock bottom and regretably burried my head in the sand. The letters seemed to stop although the friend whos address they all had also moved and so i set up a mail forwarding service but this got cancelled as they didnt like debt letters arriving.

So in the last couple of years i have not been in touch and i have been overseas. Finally in the last couple of months i have work and have begun to rebuild life and my plan is to begin to make contact, try to find out who has the debts etc and offer small payments (i should add that back when this happened I was advised to go bankrupt as with the mortgage shortfall after resposession, card debts etc it added up to a lot). I chose not to go bankrupt as one ay i always planned to at least pay something.

Now, i have suddenly had a family member in the UK be taken sick and i must return in the coming days but i am so scared I will be arrested at the airport. I know you cannot be arrested for debt but if at any time anyone has tried to get an attachment of earnings order again and i have not received the letter maybe they have issued a warrant.

Someone said that before they can do this if i dont respond they have to senda bailiff to personalloy serve the papers and only then if i dont show can they issue a warrant BUT i dont know how true this is and i am terrified that now i am finally building my life i am going to be banged up at the airport because of these debts.

It is ironic that now i am in the position and my plan was in the coming weeks now my jon is confirned permanent to make contact again but now this has happened and i have no time to contact people to ask so i need to know what may happen when i pass through the border.

I should add that my name did change due to separation when i hit rock bottom. The creditors dont know this.. again, when i contact i do intend to tell them but as of yet they dont know so my passport now is in a different name but i dont know if thats any security blanket when passing through the airport.

Any help would be gratefully received as I am literally shaking thinking about this and what may happen. Thanks guys.

patanne

You can't attach earnings that do not exist.

Last time I read about a debtor's prison was in a book by Charles Dickens.

The police have far bigger fish to fry than you are at any of our borders.

matttye

If you're arrested and taken to court you would simply have to explain you've been living overseas - like you told the court - and haven't received any correspondence to attend court. You should then answer a couple of questions about your finances and then be released.

They usually only issue a warrant for non attendance so seems fairly unlikely there will be an outstanding warrant if you told the court you've been living abroad.

Marktheshark

How many years is the last couple ?
six and you are away scot free unless it was a mortgage.

fatbelly

You're not going to be arrested at the airport.

There are very few things in the debt world that are offences that serious so come back and get on with your life.

However, you should review your strategy. It sounds like you have large debts and are intending to make small payments. That is just going to extend the period where the debt agencies have an interest in harassing you.

If you do not have any assets and no real likelihood of gaining them in the next 3 years, you should again consider bankruptcy.

Mark - it sounds like there was a ccj on the 40k shortfall debt.

growingolder

patanne wrote: »

You can't attach earnings that do not exist.

Last time I read about a debtor's prison was in a book by Charles Dickens.

The police have far bigger fish to fry than you are at any of our borders.

Thanks, I do hope so!

growingolder

matttye wrote: »

If you're arrested and taken to court you would simply have to explain you've been living overseas - like you told the court - and haven't received any correspondence to attend court. You should then answer a couple of questions about your finances and then be released.

They usually only issue a warrant for non attendance so seems fairly unlikely there will be an outstanding warrant if you told the court you've been living abroad.

Thanks for the reply and help. So what you are saying is that if I land in the airport and they arrest me they will take me to answer things and then that will be it?

As I said when there was an attachment of earnings application in the past I explained to the court by phone that I was not working and (if i remember) not in the country, they said to fax the form back saying this which I did and they confirmed case closed BUT who knows if there have been any more that I dont know about... obviously "obsconding" from the debt is probably a crime anyway isnt it?

growingolder

fatbelly wrote: »

You're not going to be arrested at the airport.

There are very few things in the debt world that are offences that serious so come back and get on with your life.

However, you should review your strategy. It sounds like you have large debts and are intending to make small payments. That is just going to extend the period where the debt agencies have an interest in harassing you.

If you do not have any assets and no real likelihood of gaining them in the next 3 years, you should again consider bankruptcy.

Mark - it sounds like there was a ccj on the 40k shortfall debt.

Thanks for the positive reply. As I said i know that debt is civil but its if there is a warrant for not replying to an attachment of earnings (if indeed anyone has applied for one) that i dont know of.

I guess I have this fear that if they issue a warrant this gets logged and just flags something to alert someone when i go through airpot.

I agree a different strategy would be good but the question is what? I mean, to be honest now i have a life overseas and its ok, humble but ok. I dont want to go bankrupt as i am not the type to walk away (although i have buried head for a long time) but as i have been out of country now for more than 6 months I believe I even if I did want to bankrupt myself I would have to go bankrupt here if i wanted to do that and over here thats a much longer and more serious thing than in the uk... so not sure what options there are?

growingolder

Marktheshark wrote: »

How many years is the last couple ?
six and you are away scot free unless it was a mortgage.

Well two are mortgages. I had two houses, my home and another i bought with my then business partner (although totally in my name) which we planned to renovate and rent. Sadly we couldnt get a tenant so this got taken too.

The very annoying thing with both houses is that they were sold well under market value. I know this was at the height of the crash but they were both sold within a week of reposession... i returned the keys and voluntarily reposessed one although the other i had to let happen forcefully because i was told if i surrendered it then i would be liable for council tax until its sold.

I know that if the banks had put them on the open market and had some patience they would have got much more. My house was bought for nearly 180k with a 150k mortgage on it but they sold it for 110k rather than wait for a realistic buyer (recently another the same in the same street sold for nearly 200k!

It's been about 2 years since i had contact by the way although some of the payments stopped a year or more before that.

growingolder

does anyone know for sure if they only issue warrant for not attending a hearing for attachment of earnings/statement of means if one has been issued if a bailiff has personally delivered the summons?

DEBTMONKEY1A

Growing older....DO NOT WORRY. Debt is a CIVIL offence-not criminal. Therefore no Police Officer will arrest you. I'd strongly advise Bankruptcy. If you can get the fees (around £750) it's DONE-a line in the sand. Whilst it's frowned upon (but understood by the Official receiver-the man who oversees the bankruptcy) to take a loan (payday or credit card) to pay for the fees it's accepted a lot of people do it. THIS IS NOT WORTH the risk to your mental health. If you came to th UK you could go Bankrupt in London & return overseas. If your life is frugal & you have no real income left over-there will be no order made for you to pay ANYTHING & 1 year down the line it's over-often sooner but 1 year maximum. So...1/2 hour of annoying form filling, 15 mins at the court (nowhere near as formal as you think)-maybe a 2-3 hour interview in person or more often a 1 hour ish phone interview with the official receiver-FINISHED/DONE. Debts gone but your credit file will be a mess for 6 years! And if any old debt you forgot to include tried to get to you AFTER the bankruptcy-that's written off too. Also sent you a quick pm.