Contract phones used by friend refuse to return!!!

zahn80

HI All ..
I took 2 contract phones in May , 2016 ( 24 months ) . A close friend of mine who owes me £1500/= approached me and told that he was banned from getting contract phones , so could I give my new contract phones to him to be used.. He promised he would pay monthly payment including any extra fee added to bills . So I had a Verbal Contract with him as follows;

1. Phones ( S7 and Iphone 6 ) can be used by him till contracts end.
2. after contracts end phones must be returned to me.
3. When contract ends upon complete payments I would deduct the total payments from what he owes to me. say ( £1500.00 - 1200.00 ).

Then he started using phone paying bills. But for last 3 months he went too far from my place and neglect paying bills.. As payments are paid by direct debit , the fees are taken from my account ,sometimes with bank charges.
Many times I contacted him and asked to pay bills, he now started to talk in a rude way saying do whatever I could do. I am really shocked and never thought he would behave in this way. I am worried and do not know how to get him paid to phones and get back my phones . The contract ends in MAY 2018. He proved to me that He is a Fraudster now.
Please , advise me what action can I take against him to make him pay bills and get my phones back ? ?
Can I inform Action Fraud ? or Make a claim online in the Small Claim Courts ?
I will appreciate and thankful for advice and help.

mobilejunkie

Not sure you'd get anywhere with fraud. You might make a small claim but would have to go through the correct proceedure and be confident of proving he owes you mony - a monetary award would be the end gain but sounds like he may not be able to pay if you win anyway.

I would ask the network(s) to cancel that sim and send you a replacement for each one. You might not get the phones back but could stop him running up further expensive bills on your account. You could still pursue him for any balance owed through the small claims court if you think it worthwhile.

zahn80

Thank you for reply. Network co says .if need to cancel or block those phones, I must pay all the balance contract payments for all 2 phones as contracts end in May 2018.

if not , Can I take legal action to make him pay through the court till contracts end ? I mean bring him before a Judge to sign an agreement that he would pay till contract ends .. If so how can I do this?

Can I do this through a Solicitor ? I can prove that phones are mine.. please..

Alter_ego

Chances are between none and zero.

JJ_Egan

Its verbal so its going to be you never said that .You are not going to be able to prove fraud .

You can certainly pay a solicitor for advice and if they advice a route to court pay for that . But that could be throwing good money after bad .


They are your phones and your contract which you are liable for .Even if you have loaned or given them away .

DCFC79

Why oh why did you agree to it, it's just madness.

Get the phones and SIM cards blocked and pay what's due.

You could try small claims court but getting him to pay what's owed isn't guarantee to work.

Have you asked him why he has stopped paying ?

How long had you known him ?

And why 2 phones ? Does he lead a double life ?

Jon_01

Unless you have something in writing from him, signed by him stating what you've outlined on the OP you're unlikely to get anywhere in law.

Call the network, says the phones are lost and get them to send new sims to you. The sims your 'friend' is using will stop working, which will stop the bills racking up (but won't help getting the phones back).

Make sure he's not on the acc as a third party and change the passwords in case he knows them. That should reduce your loss a little.

molerat

You either cancel the sims, block the phones and pay a fixed amount or you continue to effectively give him open access to your bank account. Which one is it going to be ?

mobilejunkie

zahn80 wrote: »

Thank you for reply. Network co says .if need to cancel or block those phones, I must pay all the balance contract payments for all 2 phones as contracts end in May 2018.

if not , Can I take legal action to make him pay through the court till contracts end ? I mean bring him before a Judge to sign an agreement that he would pay till contract ends .. If so how can I do this?

Can I do this through a Solicitor ? I can prove that phones are mine.. please..

I said cancel the sim, not the contract (or block the phone for that matter).

The "bring him.... to sign" is BEFORE he breaks the contract; a judge can't make him sign anything after the event.

You don't need a solicitor - but I think that a) you'd have to put up a VERY convincing case to win and b) even if you did, he still may not pay.

Guys_Dad

Yes - report sim stolen and ask for another.