Guarantor Loan Issue, Criminal or Civil

DayusDay

I agreed to assist a friend and ex work colleague in taking out a Guarantor loan with Amigo Loans in December 2014 for £5,000 over 5 years.

She made two payments in January and February and has since left her flat overnight, without leaving a forwarding address, closed her phone number down and has basically disappeared. Amigo have been very professional and understanding actually and I understand my unfortuneate financial position. She has left no forwarding address or contact details with Amigo either.

With hindsight and before anyone makes a wise comment, perhaps I shouldn't have helped, but I did help, and with an open mind.

My position is this; I now believe that she had no intention or paying back this loan, hence her sudden disappearance and has took this loan out maliciously.

My questions is, do I pursue this through the small claims court or do I get the Police involved, as this surely must be fraudulent? I do believe she is traceable, and still local to me, but I would prefer that this is done officially, rather than by myself.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Browntoa

as guarantor you are liable for the loan

suspect the police would not be interested unless she has form for this

Hazzinho

They made the first 2 payments so you could say they intended to until a change in circumstances, this is why you avoid these type of loans, you lose a "friend" and your credit can be wrecked. It's as good as your debt without the benefit of the money.

I'd get legal advice as to where you stand, don't think you're in the best position to be honest.

Pixie5740

It's not a criminal matter so the police won't be interested. The best things you can do are pay this loan off as quickly as possible to minimise the amount of interest paid and chalk this up to experience.

You could try taking your friend to small claims court. Getting a judgement is the easy bit, it's enforcing the judgement that's the difficult part. If your friend has resorted to using guarantor loans as a source of credit it's likely they they're credit file is already shot to !!!! so I don't fancy your chances of getting your money back.

macman

Pixie5740 wrote: »

It's not a criminal matter so the police won't be interested. The best things you can do are pay this loan off as quickly as possible to minimise the amount of interest paid and chalk this up to experience.

You could try taking your friend to small claims court. Getting a judgement is the easy bit, it's enforcing the judgement that's the difficult part. If your friend has resorted to using guarantor loans as a source of credit it's likely they they're credit file is already shot to !!!! so I don't fancy your chances of getting your money back.

Somewhat difficult without an address to serve the papers to...it's a civil matter, the police will not be interested unless she's reported missing by her family, if any.
And, as you say, completely pointless if the 'friend' has no assets, as seems likely.

DCFC79

Do you actually know she is local to you, its pointless in sending a LBA until you don't know for sure she is local.

Dannytyler

maybe she's panicked about it and perhaps just tracking her down and having a chat with her.... as it stands you owe 5k and nothing you can do about it really..... but if she pays what she can to you then what you owe is reduced.....

Brock_and_Roll

Think this can be summarised as follows:

1) Pay off the loan asap, no escaping this.
2) Track the person down (pretty easy these days)
3) Assess whether they have any recoverable assets and/or income
4) If yes above, consider Small Claims Court action
5) If no, put the heat on her and/or her family if you are up for that kind of thing, or if not, give up and chalk it to experience.

If it were me, if she was genuinely in a bad financial situation I would let it lie. However, if she had deliberately done me over I would make her life a misery until every penny paid back - otherwise she will only do it again.

Herzlos

I'd go talk to the police on the assumption that it's been done deliberately with intent to deceive.

I'd then get the money paid off (you might be better taking out a new loan and clearing the Amigo one, it'll be at around 50% APR and you'll be able to get a much better rate).

I'd then see if I could find her, she's presumably not gone that far, but it'll be a stuggle to get money back since she likely doesn't have it.

DayusDay

Thanks all. I know she is probably local, it's just that I don't want to personally go banging on people's doors! I would rather it is done formally by professionals. I just want to make sure she doesn't do it to anyone else. That is why I would like to pursue her properly.

Tixy

You could relatively easily obtain a CCJ against her. You can send court papers to her last known address.

If she doesn't get those papers or doesn't reply to them then the court would award a CCJ, which would then be on public record (all be it that any member of the public would have to pay to search for those CCJs and know her past addresses).

That said, she may well already have CCJs against her. That may be the reason why she was resorting to borrowing with a guarantor.

It is quite possible any new person she tries to tap to guarantor a loan for her won't first check whether she has any CCJs.

Possibly a more effective way to warn others against it would be posting on facebook /social media if you and she are users of social media. But that may not be an avenue you want to pursue.