Ex friend owes me money but took out DRO

honary_iceni

So this so-called friend borrowed £5000 from me three-and-a-half years ago. We agreed a deal that he would pay me back £150 a month for 3 years so that we both benefitted from the deal. He paid for a few months and then disappeared - expensive lesson learned! Recently, however I bumped into someone who we both used to hang out with. He told me he was back in touch with him and said that he had taken out a DRO. I looked up former friend's name on the register but it is not listed, which means ( I believe) that he has been discharged.

My questions then are:  if he included me in the DRO, shouldn't I have been informed (he knew my address and I haven't moved). Alternatively, if he didn't include his debt to me, didn't he break the law, and if so is there anything I can do to pursue him or has he got away with it, given his discharge?

[Deleted User]

I work out that you were charging your friend £400 interest on the deal, are you a licenced credit broker? If not you don't have a leg to stand on sorry.

[Deleted User]

honary_iceni said:

So this so-called friend borrowed £5000 from me three-and-a-half years ago. We agreed a deal that he would pay me back £150 a month for 3 years so that we both benefitted from the deal. He paid for a few months and then disappeared - expensive lesson learned! Recently, however I bumped into someone who we both used to hang out with. He told me he was back in touch with him and said that he had taken out a DRO. I looked up former friend's name on the register but it is not listed, which means ( I believe) that he has been discharged.

My questions then are:  if he included me in the DRO, shouldn't I have been informed (he knew my address and I haven't moved). Alternatively, if he didn't include his debt to me, didn't he break the law, and if so is there anything I can do to pursue him or has he got away with it, given his discharge?

When someone is accepted for a DRO their name will appear on the Individual Insolvency Register for 12 months and be removed 3 months after the DRO ends.  Loans from friends and family can be included in a DRO and if you were listed as a creditor you should have been contacted by the OR.  Since you weren't contacted it sounds as if you weren't included in the DRO so you could still pursue the debt if you wanted  although I don't fancy your chances of seeing the money again.  If the DRO is done and dusted it's probably too late to do anything about it now.  I'm not sure about breaking the law, I can't think which law your former friend could be charged under, can you?

[Deleted User]

venison said:

I work out that you were charging your friend £400 interest on the deal, are you a licenced credit broker? If not you don't have a leg to stand on sorry.

You don't need to be a licenced credit broker to charge interest on a loan to family or friends.  You do need to declare the income tax on the interest to HMRC though.

honary_iceni

Thank you for your reply Lover_of_Lycra.

Yeah, I'm pretty much resigned to losing this money. As for breaking the law, my reasoning was this: if I understand things correctly (quite possible that I don't!) when he applied for the DRO he had to include ALL relevant debts. To hide debts, particularly if they take the total above £20,000, is pretty serious (?) So surely it is just as serious if this is discovered at a later date. Well, that's my naive take on it.

Venison: That's right £400 to compensate me for the interest lost by not leaving it in my current account which was paying 3% at the time. His suggestion, by the way. All part of the con no doubt.

jonesMUFCforever

Your last sentence says it all - you have been conned and you will not be getting any more money back.
You are clutching at straws - your only hope is to get hold of him down a dark alley - the rest you know!
Just imagine for one moment that you get him to court and win - he would declare bankruptcy and your money would be gone again.

[Deleted User]

honary_iceni said:

Thank you for your reply Lover_of_Lycra.

Yeah, I'm pretty much resigned to losing this money. As for breaking the law, my reasoning was this: if I understand things correctly (quite possible that I don't!) when he applied for the DRO he had to include ALL relevant debts. To hide debts, particularly if they take the total above £20,000, is pretty serious (?) So surely it is just as serious if this is discovered at a later date. Well, that's my naive take on it.

Venison: That's right £400 to compensate me for the interest lost by not leaving it in my current account which was paying 3% at the time. His suggestion, by the way. All part of the con no doubt.

looks like your money would have been better left where it was, had you come here before making the loan you would have seen the many horror stories about lending to family and so called friends.
The licencing of people lending money btw was put in place to sort out this kind of mess and to stop people being lenders without a licence, I stand by what I said.

amandacat

This is an awful situation and this person is little more than a thief. I’d be tempted to pursue it through the court, even if you don’t get the money back, it’ll put stress on them and they won’t have got away with it without at least some come back. 
I have never lent to a friend but I have to family. Once I gave a gift to a family member of £1200 for their wedding and a further £800 loan. They got pregnant soon after and I never saw the £800 and know I never will. I’ve lent other family members small amounts which I’ve not had back. I never get it because I’ve had times I’ve had to lend money in the past but have always paid it back promptly. Always shocks me how many people feel comfortable taking money but never pay it back. I have a very strict rule not to lend anyone money now, it’s a shame so many of us have had to learn the hard way. 

foxy-stoat

venison said:

I work out that you were charging your friend £400 interest on the deal, are you a licenced credit broker? If not you don't have a leg to stand on sorry.

Very funny - total rubbish apart from not having a leg to stand on....you have lost your money and you wont see it again, but you knew that already.

Brock_and_Roll

Dont worry about the legal side of things - the first posted reply was utter tosh.
There is nothing to stop individuals lending family and friends money with interest - I lent my eldest £400 the other day under my "quikquid" scheme at £5 interest per day! Probably never get to bank it though!!!