Indemnity Claim Fraud

domino12345

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice off someone, everyone i talk to seems to be baffled by what has happened. Basically, 8 years ago i stupidly took out a car finance in my name for my ex-partners car, because he couldn't get car finance due to bad credit history. At the time i felt pressured to say yes and thought if it's just in my name and i don't deal with any of the money side it would be fine. When we went to get the car from the dealer, I explained i was only putting my name down for the car and it wasn't mine and my ex-partner gave his bank details for the direct debit. Anyway fast forward some years and the whole thing was paid off in full three years ago, no payments missed. I also made sure of this when my ex partner and I broke up. 

To my surprise, last week i received a letter stating i owe a finance company a substantial amount of money and i had missed the repayments. I was shocked and rang them, not knowing what it was for and praying it wasn't to do with my ex. After talking on the phone, the finance company told me my ex partner has recently made an indemnity claim to his bank (using the direct debit guarantee) and had received the sum of money back that i was now being made to pay. You can imagine how angry and shocked i am that this is happening after three years of the finance account being closed! My advice was to contact my ex (who i haven't spoken to in years) and see if it was a mistake. I did as i was asked and tried to get in contact with him, to which i received nasty messages, asking me to leave him alone etc etc, therefore it is obvious he knows what he has done. I have since learned he is in a lot of debt and i'm guessing he is desperate. I then rang back the finance company to tell them and they have looked into it slightly but because there is no signature linking him to the account, they just expect me to pay the full amount of money in 14 days or this goes badly on my credit rating! I've explained to them this is clearly fraud and how come if his bank details are clearly on there its not linked to him, but apparently it is not. 

I will be ringing more places tomorrow for advice, ie citizens advice and the police. But i thought i would reach out to you wise people to see if anyone has been in a similar position? Also i thought it might be advice for people if they are thinking of getting a finance or loan for someone, just don't, or pay it and get the money off them. I have researched into this claim and i am also a bit confused by a few things.

 My ex has only claimed a years worth of the money, does that mean he can claim again next year? 
Also the finance company state that they don't let other people take a car finance out for someone else's car. So why was i allowed too? And why was it not obvious that my name wasn't the same as the bank account? 

It all seems very dodgy and unfair to me. I agree I was very naive back then but we all make mistakes. Any help would be great thankyou   
(apologises for the essay, i thought it best to talk in detail) 

boo_star

You were a guarantor.  As a result when he missed the payments you are the one they turn to.

Don't bother wasting your time with the police or FOS.  You won't get anywhere with either.

benbay001

boo_star said:

You were a guarantor.  As a result when he missed the payments you are the one they turn to.

Don't bother wasting your time with the police or FOS.  You won't get anywhere with either.

No payments were missed. 

boo_star

benbay001 said:

boo_star said:

You were a guarantor.  As a result when he missed the payments you are the one they turn to.

Don't bother wasting your time with the police or FOS.  You won't get anywhere with either.

No payments were missed. 

"To my surprise, last week i received a letter stating i owe a finance company a substantial amount of money and i had missed the repayments."

Sounds a lot like payments were missed.  And someone reclaiming DD payments = missed payments.

Xbigman

I'm sorry to say it's a mess and probably not good news.
The loan was in your name, so the bank has come after you for the repayments. This would be standard practice and on that basis you do indeed owe the money.
Your ex had the benefit of the goods and agreed to pay for them (the car) as evidenced by his making all the payments, so you would have a claim against him in the small claims court. Your problem there being that he probably doesn't have any money. If you want revenge you could probably push your ex to bankruptcy but that would cost you even more money. 
Where is the car now? In theory you are the owner so could seek to take possession, although it won't be worth much now. 
The police will consider this a civil matter and won't get involved. 
You should take legal advice but I think you will have to pay. 


Darren

benbay001

boo_star said:

benbay001 said:

boo_star said:

You were a guarantor.  As a result when he missed the payments you are the one they turn to.

Don't bother wasting your time with the police or FOS.  You won't get anywhere with either.

No payments were missed. 

"To my surprise, last week i received a letter stating i owe a finance company a substantial amount of money and i had missed the repayments."

Sounds a lot like payments were missed.  And someone reclaiming DD payments = missed payments.

If you pay for something, and then get a refund, does that mean you have never paid? Or does it mean you paid and then the money was refunded?

[Deleted User]

 Go get the car, it's yours. You can use the police because you have evidence from the dealer it's yours. 

DCFC79

_shel said:

 Go get the car, it's yours. You can use the police because you have evidence from the dealer it's yours. 

OP do this, I'm hoping you have a spare to make it easier.

domino12345

Thank you all for your responses. I'm really angry that this case just sounds like a open and shut, i pay the money. Especially when it was all paid off 3 years ago. 
The car actually got sold to my sister for a few thousand a few years ago and she has since sold it on. So he got money for the car, i'm wondering if this will help my case? 
Does anyone know why he didn't claim the full amount of money either? Could he do it again? 
Surely the finance company should have noticed my name wasn't the same as the bank details, could they not be liable? 

Terry_Towelling

If your ex-partner was there at the time the paperwork was completed and gave his bank details, he would have been asked to sign off the DD instruction.  The paperwork would also have asked for the account holder's name - so what name was entered on the form?  There is no way the dealer would have let you sign off an instruction to take money from an account that wasn't yours.  On what basis do you think he managed to convince his bank that (three years after the fact) the payments were taken in error?

I imagine you will have thought up answers to these questions that nicely deflect them.

eddddy

domino12345 said:

Does anyone know why he didn't claim the full amount of money either? Could he do it again? 

Just a guess - but a DD indemnity claim should only be made if money has been taken in error. So he may have wanted to make up an error that sounded plausible, like "The DD should have only been taken for 2 years, so the payments taken after 2 years were errors."

In theory, there's nothing to stop him telling his bank that the earlier DD payments were errors as well - and getting those back.

But if that guess is correct, he's probably guilty of "Fraud by false representation" (i.e. lying to make a gain for himself) which is a criminal offence.

But whether the police would be interested is another matter. And even if he was prosecuted, that wouldn't necessarily mean you get any money back.