Reporting a loan by deception

Alice_Walker

Paultheborrower wrote: »

Thank you this is exactly what I was looking for, I was worried that the police wouldn't be bothered with it being small scale, no direct victim etc.
I'll report it this weekend

They're not going to be bothered. Action Fraud are largely there to gather stats, to identify large scale scams. You'll file a report, they'll give you a call if they need more details and they may even write to you, then it will be filed under "we'll look at it when we've got nothing better to do than get involved in petty arguments between grown men".

glennstar

Alice_Walker wrote: »

Action Fraud are largely there to gather stats

Alice Walker, you are not far from the mark, unfortunately.

I think it's fair to say that there is little or no direct path to action when dealing with fraud in this country. Half of the law enforcement community don't have the capacity to understand what is going on and the other half doesn't perceive it as really breaking the law, in much the same way as they don't really see domestic violence as breaking the law*.

The reason I have suggested ActionFraud is that they are relatively educated about this type of crime and the process of "gathering stats" is actually more powerful than you give it credit for.

If everyone recorded every crime of every type then the MoJ would allocate money and resources accordingly. They might then decide that paying local law enforcement to sit on the side of the road speed trapping motorists at 32mph in a 30 zone, for example, is less important than catching Paultheborrower's acquaintance. RTAs are accurately recorded by the Police, Insurance companies, etc and fraud is not... leaving us with the current state of affairs.

Before everyone castigates me, I'm not disputing the relationship between speed and RTA fatalities or diminishing the impact that road traffic accidents have on peoples lives. The purpose of my example is that statistics have driven the refinement of motor manufacturing standards, law enforcement changes, driver education, etc. Fraud is an infinitely more complex subject matter and we need to start somewhere. If you don't report the crime, the authorities don't know it's happening and as a result won't take any action.

* I acknowledge this situation is starting to change.

lynz68

The victim here is the bank. If payments are being made they won't care if not they will just trash his credit record. They are highly unlikely to report him to the Police for £5000.

You won't get any satisfaction out of this you are highly unlikely to find out the result.

eddddy

Increasingly, the police regard this type of fraud as an issue for the banks to deal with.

In this case, the argument might be... if the bank wants to save money by not doing proper income checks on borrowers - why should the police bear the cost of 'picking up the pieces' afterwards?

MEM62

Paultheborrower wrote: »

Should I report this to the police or directly to the bank?

I think you should do nothing. You claim you have been assaulted by this guy once already. Revenge is a dangerous game - are you prepared for the potential consequences should you decide to play it?