Credit card maxed out by someone else...not stolen but without permission

CR_90

Hi guys, bare with me on this one! If this is the wrong place to ask something like this please feel free to direct me to the correct part of the forum.

I'm writing this on behalf of my girlfriend. We've been together about 18 months. She has a 5 year old son with a man she completely despises.

Over the course of their relationship he treated her badly, was at times abusive, and was just a generally bad guy. She eventually had enough and moved away (not long after the son was born). He paid child support for a while, then decided he didn't want to anymore...months went by and eventually my girlfriend went to the child maintenance agency to make him start paying again. When he found out she was seeing someone else (me), he travelled over from where he lives, followed her after work and punched her around the head. He was arrested and cautioned. The son goes to see him once every 2 weeks, and any communication my girlfriend has with him goes through his Mum, the child's Nan, who's quite supportive.

Anyway to the current issue at hand...when my girlfriend lived with her ex boyfriend she had an emergency credit card which never got used. When she left him and moved away, she completely forgot about the credit card. The ex boyfriend has maxed out the £5,000 limit on the card because that's the kind of guy he is. The bank sent letters to the boyfriends address about it, which he ignored. The debt was then sold to debt collectors. When he received debt collection letters, he informed them that "the owner of the card no longer lives here" and gave them my girlfriend's current address. My girlfriend has now received letters telling her that she has to start paying back the £5,000, even though she didn't spend a penny. She's already made the first £108 payment...she didn't tell me straight away because she was embarrassed to be in such a situation.

All the research she's done concludes that if the card wasn't STOLEN by the ex boyfriend, he hasn't done anything wrong and as the cardholder she must pay the amount back. This seems absolutely absurd to me. I've come here to ask for possible legal advice or any advice in general as I refuse to let my girlfriend pay back such a huge debt that this scumbag has accrued.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate any advice you can give me!

PeacefulWaters

If she's not authorised the transactions the card company should (in law) reimburse.

Simple as that.

Andypandyboy

Using the card without permission is theft. Report him to the police, and the card company.

jonesMUFCforever

Get copies of the statements of all transactions.
Where she will fall down is by not advising them of her new address.
Old cards and presumably pins would have gone to the old address.

At the end of the day if she is prepared to report it to the police and get a crime reference number she can try to get this written off as fraud.

I take it she has not spoken to the card lender at all?
First thing to do is to dispute the debt with the collection services and ask them to send it back to the lender because of your post.

Keep us informed.

boo_star

Andypandyboy wrote: »

Using the card without permission is theft. Report him to the police, and the card company.

Fraud, surely?

PeacefulWaters

boo_star wrote: »

Fraud, surely?

The Theft Act would cover it easily enough.

boo_star

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The Theft Act would cover it easily enough.

Not any more according to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-fraud-act-2006-repeal-of-the-deception-offences-in-the-theft-acts-1968-1996

fishybusiness

The ex boyfriend has maxed out the £5,000 limit on the card because that's the kind of guy he is

How do you know he is the culprit?

chattychappy

boo_star wrote: »

Not any more according to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-fraud-act-2006-repeal-of-the-deception-offences-in-the-theft-acts-1968-1996

Correct. Incidentally, the principal fraud is on the CC, not on the OP's gf.

Leaving aside the criminal side, I agree with the analysis that the OP's gf should argue that these were unauthorised transactions.

Just to double check: OP, the card(s) were issued in your gf's name on her account? This guy wasn't an additional cardholder on her account?

Assuming not, before the relationship ended, had she allowed him to use the card(s) at all? The principle stands: it is for the CC to prove that the transactions were authorised by the cardholder. However I remember an FOS case where a cardholder had given a card to a friend to use for a particular transaction who had then gone on to make further transactions. Unfortunately for the cardholder, the FOS decided that that all the transactions were authorised for the purposes of the CCA1974. (There may have been some other factors at play - if relevant I'll look up the case.)

eddddy

chattychappy wrote: »

Correct. Incidentally, the principal fraud is on the CC, not on the OP's gf.

...

Unfortunately for the cardholder, the FOS decided that that all the transactions were authorised for the purposes of the CCA1974.

Presumably you're saying that it's either fraud with the CC company as victim...

... or if the FOS decide the transactions were authorised (according to CCA1974), it's theft with the OP's gf as victim (assuming she never gave permission for the £5k to be spent).


So in the latter case, the OP's gf can make a complaint to the police about her ex and/or make a claim against him through the civil courts - although she may be afraid to do that.

chattychappy

eddddy wrote: »

... or if the FOS decide the transactions were authorised (according to CCA1974), it's theft with the OP's gf as victim (assuming she never gave permission for the £5k to be spent).

So in the latter case, the OP's gf can make a complaint to the police about her ex and/or make a claim against him through the civil courts - although she may be afraid to do that.

If the transactions were authorised, I think it would be hard to make the case for their being a theft, though I suppose there could still be a civil claim.

The fraud/theft debate is probably a bit of a digression. I think we need a bit more detail on whether the "emergency" card was ever there for the bf's use and if so on what basis. And then look at whether we can say the transactions were unauthorised.