Help.. Been so stupid

Seoulsearch

Hi All,

Sorry for a long first post but I thought this would be a good place to get advice. To try and cut the story short I had borrowed a friend's card with his consent for a holiday early this year. I ended up running a gambling bill of 3k which I have now cleared thank god. I have also now stopped betting all together

Anyway during the initial stress of this I was so worried about getting the money back as my friend also needed it clearing asap that I was so stupid and took out 4 contracts as my 2 best friends and then sold the devices. Initially my thought process was all messed up. I was going to sell the devices pay my friend then pay the phones in full asap and cancel the finance plans. Obviously this hasn't got to plan and now I've made some payments but now they are 2 months in arrears.

My friends are obviously super stressed and I'm surprised they haven't killed me already. We have contacted the finance company to advise I took them and want the responsibility of these transfering to me but they are advising that as my friend's signed for the phones at there address that they are responsible and they won't change it. The reason they accepted is because I told them to expect a delivery for me but I wasn't honest ;(

I have learnt from this awful experience and accept all responsibility, unfortunately I don't have the money to pay them all in full now otherwise i would.

Am I right in thinking the best solution here is for me to pay all of the arrears to help restore the credit score of my friends then save up the full amount and clear it asap?

I realise I've been so bad in all of this and accept anything that comes to me from action fraud etc. Just obviously when things get desperate my judgement was so clouded

Thanks in advance for any replies

[Deleted User]

You would very quickly be an ex friend and what you have done is criminal.


Even if you repay now your friends will have their credit records ruined due to having contracts on them at all and being behind with payments.


Maybe go to the police and admit to fraud and maybe on the sayso of the police the phone companies will amend their records to show these friends didn't take out the policies.


Despicable.

[Deleted User]

The best solution for your friends would be to report it as fraud and for you to take the consequences.

You've damaged their credit history which will take some time to recover from and they shouldn't need to suffer that..

Seoulsearch

Yeah it's already been reported and I accept full responsibility. Completely agree with what's said above

Fireflyaway

I agree the only way for your friends credit to not be damaged is to report the fraud and get the records cleaned up.

Dobbibill

As well as your friends reporting it as fraud, be prepared to sell anything you have to pay off the debt. If the police/mobile companies don't remove it, it stays there for 6yrs.

Migster

I don't see how the friends can report this as fraud, given that the phones in question were delivered to their addresses and signed for by them.

[Deleted User]

Because the OP fraudulently opened accounts in their names.

Candyapple

Seoulsearch wrote: »

Anyway during the initial stress of this I was so worried about getting the money back as my friend also needed it clearing asap that I was so stupid and took out 4 contracts as my 2 best friends and then sold the devices. Initially my thought process was all messed up. I was going to sell the devices pay my friend then pay the phones in full asap and cancel the finance plans. Obviously this hasn't got to plan and now I've made some payments but now they are 2 months in arrears.

I don't understand your thought process. You owed Friend 1 £3k from running up his card so used Friend 2 and Friend 3 to buy four mobile phones with contracts, to sell the phones and clear Friend 1's debt. But what was the plan to clear to clear the mobile phones debt for Friends 2 and 3?

Surely it would have been easier to tell Friend 1 that you know you were in the wrong and that you will clear the debt entirely but it may take a bit of time / sort out a monthly payment plan amongst yourselves. Instead of losing just 1 friend, you've now probably lost 3.

What has been the outcome of your friends reporting the matter to the police / Action Fraud?