Statute Barred Debt - Can Debt Collectors 'Invent' Past Payments? 23 February 2019 at 1:03PM edited 23 February 2019 at 1:06PM in Debt-free wannabe 11 replies 1.5K views

johnny45

Hi everyone,

Recently i've been contacted by Arrow Global and now Drydensfairfax solicitors about an old credit card debt from 2008 which was apparently assigned to them in 2011.

In any normal situation this debt is at least 8 years old and clearly would be statute barred by now.

However, on one of the letters they sent me they claim there was a payment of £5 made by BACS in Sept of 2013, which if true would mean the debt is still enforceable.

When I saw this my first thought was "why would I have made a random one off payment of £5 towards a 5 year old debt?". But to be sure i've spent the last couple of weeks requesting bank statements from that period to be sure.

Unsurprisingly, the statements have now arrived in the post and do confirm that no payments went out to any firm resembling a debt collector (or the original creditor) for that amount of money during that month or the months before and after.

So the only conclusion I can come to here is that something dodgy is going on their end and they've invented this payment to try and convince me that the debt is still enforceable?

The current situation with it is that Drydensfairfax have sent me a letter threatening to take court action if I don't contact them which I have yet to respond to. (I have made no contact with either Arrow Global or Drydensfairfax ever to my knowledge).

I'm also now in the process of getting into an okay position with my credit score and really want to avoid a CCJ, however I also don't want to be paying off 8 year old debts that should now be statute barred.

What do you guys think I should do?

sourcrates

Hi,


You should re-phraise your question to, "Do debt collectors invent past payments" ?
The answer is yes they do, quite often a random £3/£4 or in your case £5 payment will appear in an otherwise payment free landscape, usually with no reference to what this payment is, or where its from.

Its a trick to confuse you into thinking you may of made a payment after all, in reality, it could of come from anywere, most popular is an internal transfer between accounts, they do it to try to make you think your account is not statute barred, in the hope you will accept this and pay up.

You should dispute this payment in writing, its one thing attempting to pull the wool over your eyes, but if they had to rely on this in court, thats a different matter altogether, false accounting is a very serious offence, so they may try it on with you, but submiting false evidence to a court would have very serious consequences for them, so you may find they accept your account is statute barred after all.

D_M_E

As Sourcrates says, dispute the spurious credit and see what "proof" they reply with then report back here.

TripleH

Nothing different to add. Strange how a readjustment of fees counts as coming from a customer. As long as you have evidence to support you that's fine.

Don't release it to them but keep to one side in case they try to take it further and you can shoot the claim down.

Joe_Horner

sourcrates wrote: »

You should dispute this payment in writing, its one thing attempting to pull the wool over your eyes, but if they had to rely on this in court, thats a different matter altogether, false accounting is a very serious offence, so they may try it on with you, but submiting false evidence to a court would have very serious consequences for them, so you may find they accept your account is statute barred after all.

Would this not also be of interest to the FCA?

I'd be inclined to give them one chance (in writing) to withdraw it and confirm the debt IS now statue barred then, if (when?) they try to push the bluff further, have a complaint in immediately about their illegal tactics.

Karonher

OP are you sure you only had the account you now have the statements for? Could you find out which bank the payment was supposedly made from then you would know for sure?

LeeUK

Yes. Robinson Way tried to invent a past payment on a statue barred account last year. They said I had made a £10 payment 5 and a half years previous therefore it wasn't barred. I knew this was a lie but no problem, I left them to stew for another 6 months then sent off the statue barred letter again. It worked.

datlex

I would have thought that if they tried taking you to court and you provided the court with copies of your bank statements from that date it is evidence of them committing fraud.

johnny45

Karonher wrote: »

OP are you sure you only had the account you now have the statements for? Could you find out which bank the payment was supposedly made from then you would know for sure?

I did think this to begin with but have only ever had 2 bank accounts that I can make payments from.

I have the statements for both of these accounts and none show any payment of £5 going out to anyone.

johnny45

As I haven't contacted them yet, shall I send a 'Statute Barred' template letter to them first and see what happens?

Then if they come back claiming it's not statute barred and mentioning this mystery payment, i'll report back here?

jond240

Hi
I would be interested to know if you have had any progress with Drysdenfairfax as my partner is in a very similar position?

They also mentioned a random payment in August 2013 (none made from my partners account at all !!)

Regards