Dicorce, Clean break agreement and ppi claim fraud

ianbulgariaman

Hi i'm new to this site and would like any possible feedback and advice regarding my current scenario, i will omit reference to any company or individual.
November 2019 - wife divorced me for 2 year breakdown of marriage, i couldnt afford to fight it or contest it, she initially wanted a clean amicable divorce.
June 2020 - ex wife says if i pay her £1000 she will give me a clean break agreement, i declined
September 2020 - ex wife sends papers for me to sign clean break, half documents were missing, ex wife  eventually provides all documents, i sign and get my daughter to countersign and copy them for future reference, docs returned to ex
November 2020 - divorce finalised and marriage over
Jan 2021
- ex wife sends our daughter to my house with a cheque for ppi refund in my name but at ex wifes address, with instructions to put half money when cleared inn daughters bank to then pass to ex (as ex wife is being investigated for benefit fraud (alledgedly) hence hiding finances through family banks)
- contacted the cheque provider asking details and where it originated from and dates
- contacted finance company using partial details from cheque provider and internet searching, contacted them to ask for advice and to explain i had no knowledge of any ppi claims etc, they replied you got the cheque why complain so i asked the implicatioons of me cashing the cheque  and they replied we then pursue you for our fees for services rendered regardless of cashing it or not.
- reported to police as a fraudulent claim by my ex (investigation pending currently)
- after several phone calls to finance company and nothing but threats and lack of sympathy to me being an innocent victim, i resort to email communications for tracability, today the finance company sent me copy of agreement and signatures, its clear even to a baboon that both signatues were in fact both signed by ex wife, i have updated the police of new information, i submitted a copy of my driving licence to the finance company voluntarily to prove my address, signature and clearly my picture to help reinforce my innocence and asked them to provide a list of all transactions so i can get a picture of the scale and potential amount of money involved also to  freeze any pending transactions and invoicing for fees until the situation is resolved, i offered to return anything sent to me letters/cheques etc but now the questions are as follows
 - what more can i do to prove my innocence
- what are the legal implications against me in regards to the fraudulant activity of my wife
 - what do i do about the cheque and any that may be being processed and now i know that i was legally entitled to them or they wouldnt have sent a cheque
- if my ex wife receives cheques payable to her but from joint accounts, i presume that as we have the clean break i cant legally have access to what would have been my half of the value, but would be deemed as liable for the cost of services rendered having been listed on the agreement all be it fraudulently
- now i can prove thatt the ppi claim was done fraudulently 
- on a strange side note i suspected that ex wife divorced me fraudulently and as i said i couldn't afford to contend it, i had no choice but let it run its course despite my objections, could a divorce be overturned or investigated due to fraudulent activity as it seems it ties in with the dates the ppi claim was originally initiated along with the divorce application november 2019, it seems that the ppi claim was put on hold and then released december 2020 after the divorce was final and the  clean break in effect, just in time for the money to start rolling in

thank you in advance, i couldnt make this story up and half the issues i havent listed but this is the nuts and bolts of it

CookieMonster

Hi,
Sorry for the mess you find yourself in.
For the divorce stuff, especially in relation to the details of the clean break agreement, you may want to discuss it with a solicitor.
I'd also contact a solicitor over the PPI fraud.
But, if you don't have the money for a solicitor:
For the PPI Fraud, so long as you have dates and names for your interactions with the police, as well as copies of the information given to them (and to the PPI company), then I'd wait until you're contacted by the police (or chase them up for confirmation of what they're doing (pressing charges) since I assume you've made a complaint?)
You have enough proof of your innocence, it's their job to investigate and prove your guilt.
It's innocent until proven guilty in this country.
There might be other frauds involving your signature/loans/other going on too: are your bank account details known by your ex-wife? Others on here will give you better feedback/advice than me.

sassyblue

Unless I’m missing something I think you are blowing some things out of proportion.

firstly the divorce. Why would you want to contest it? It would mean there would be a hearing to attend to explain to a judge why you think the marriage wasn’t over. Ultimately your wife would explain to the judge why she believes the marriage to be over and it’s very rare the judge would decide not to grant the divorce because if one party wants to end the marriage, how can there be a marriage?

by 'contest' if you mean you didn’t get involved in the financial side of it then, as it has come to pass, that wasn’t a good idea as there were clearly financial issues that you should have been made aware of.  In relation to the 'clean break' you need to check what you signed as a Consent Order should have been sent to you independently by your wife's solicitors and not given to you by your wife. This is so you cannot later claim you felt pressured into signing the document.  The Consent Order provides the clean break, not the divorce itself, this would have also been sent direct to you by the Court once approved by a judge. 

Was the PPI claim mentioned in the consent order? It could still feature stating that both parties are to equally share the proceeds of it.  Tbh I’m not sure you’ve even had a consent order but perhaps believe the divorce itself provided the clean break?

now the PPI. You say this is a ‘fraudulent claim' by your wife but if there is a loan agreement and PPI compensation is due how can it be a fraudulent claim? I think you mean your wife took out finance in your name which you were not aware of and that is what the Police are investigating. If you have supplied all the documents you have then wait for the police to come back to you, you have done all you can in the meantime. 

What 'joint accounts' are you referring to sending your wife money you want half of? 

No, you cannot overturn a divorce. The divorce wasn’t fraudulent as the courts have been satisfied both parties agreed to the divorce so it went ahead, are you saying you didn’t sign the divorce papers either, because if you did sign them then that’s your agreement. End of.

Sorry it sounds blunt but hope that helps.

ETA the financial implications are that you need to discover if there are any other loan agreements your wife has taken out in your name or jointly with her. I’d leave that one to the police to investigate.

Doesn't obtaining a credit report show anything open in your name, perhaps someone else can confirm?

wilfred30

What do you mean by your ex-wife 'fraudulently' divorced you?
She didn't forge your signature on the divorce documents, you signed them voluntarily.
As an aside, I thought a signature had to be witnessed by an independent person, not a member of your own family but I could be wrong.

sassyblue

wilfred30 said:

As an aside, I thought a signature had to be witnessed by an independent person, not a member of your own family but I could be wrong.

Excellent point, I missed that. They need signing by someone not related to you and over a certain age. 

ianbulgariaman

Sorry for the long delay in replying, i have been quite ill recently due to the stress of it all, here is where i'm at so far

PPI fraud:-
- Been trying to communicate with the finance company, they are no longer responding to any emails i send, i sent a formal coimplaint requesting their complaint policy and requested copies of all documents in reference to my name and any other claims that may be pending. on the day i first rang them they immediatly sent me an invoicie for their fees with 14 days as per signed t&c's which clearly i didnt have or sign, the invoice date was 14 days yesterday so i presume that they intend to push it regardless and demand payment or debt collectors.
 - Case pending with Action Fraud team but as of yet no updates
 - Contacted CAB and raised a complaint with their consumer goods and services, awaiting reply
- contacted 2 solicitors both say they cant help but i assume its because im on benefits and they dont explain why or give any feedback
- i still have not cashed the ppi cheque and had hoped that the finaance company realising that due to the situation they should have offered a new agreement in relation to the "cheque" putting in my name at my address and signed by me then this could have been easily solved and protects me from being liable in connection with the fraud claim

it came to light that she initiated this claim in 2018 and never mentioned it, 12 months before the divorce, the consent form shows nothing of any finances or ppi claims..



Divorce
 - I think the best i can achieve with this is that the timeline of the above ppi claim and the timeline of the divorce go hand in hand and the only outcome would be evidence of the above and dates  of communication between ex-wife and finance company  would show that while she was signing and claiming we was together and living at her address she was also signing divorce paper stating the exact opposite obtaining the clean break so i couldnt have entitlement over any monies payed to her, lying and falsely signing legal court documents is the fraudulent claim i mentioned previously, i have written to the divorce court that handled our divorce informing them of the pending fraud case
I never had to get any witness to countersign any of the divorce documents but the clean break documents went to my ex-wife who then sent via our daughter for me to sign, i was not to post them they were taken back to my ex-wife, maybe she made alterations before posting, i will probably never know

Today will  be trying to find solicitors ....fingers crossed

Thanks for your feedback so far, much appreciated

sassyblue

Along with your Decree Absolute document did you have another document around that time from the Court which is clearly documented as a Consent Order?  This is a really important question.  Did you see, fill out and sign and keep a copy of a Statement of Information form too to go with the Consent Order?


ETA. I’m not surprised the finance company won’t engage with you further.  The finance agreement they had was obviously well before 2018 when your wife instigated the PPI claim so why would they go back and alter the agreement you say your wife signed fraudulently?  In their eyes the matter is dealt with and you have the PPI cheque to settle the claim your wife raised which you haven’t cashed.  In the meantime you are asking them to produce a new agreement, don’t you understand that would be fraudulent too?

The Police will deal with this matter and it could take months for them to build a case, in due course the Police will no doubt engage with the finance company themselves.

There is nothing a Solicitor can do for you.  You signed the divorce papers and you were divorced. I doubt the Family Court (who handle divorces) will be interested in your letter unless you alleged you didn’t sign some divorce papers.  The fraud you allege your wife committed will be handled by the Police and Criminal Court.  It would have been nice for them to explain that to you though, they may also have been approached to act for your ex-wife in any criminal fraud though, in that case they wouldn’t be able to tell you that though.

TBagpuss

Divorce - I doubt that it is 'fraudulent'. A divorce is granted where the court is satisfied that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, it sounds as though you accepted that that was the case and signed the necessary paperwork. You may not have agreed with exactly what was said about why the marriage broke down, but that's not a requirement.
Financial Order within divorce proceedings: It is possible (your post is unclear) that your wife was not honest completing the statement of information, if she knew of, but failed to declare, a PPI claim. That might, if the amount of the claim was large enough, amount to a basis on which you could apply to appeal the order out of tome and ask the court to reconsider the financial split taking into account the PPI money.  However it sounds as though the claim was in your name, in which case you haven't lost out, as there was never an asset for your wife to declare, and you didn't know there was one for you to declare. 

So far as the PPI claim is concerned, you can't be bound by a contract you didn't sign, so if you are being charged by a claims company. I am not sure what you want to achieve.

Option 1 - you accept and bank the cheque, don't pay anything to your wife as the cheque is in your name, and presumably you were entitled to the money.
If the issue is that you were entitled to the money but object to paying fees to claims firm then you can of course return the cheque, remind them that you do not have, and have never had, any contract with them and are not liable for any cost or fees, and that you have not authorised them to liaise with the relevant bank/financial organization on your behalf not have your given any other person permission to do so, and that the police are aware that your name and signature have been forged an apparent attempt at fraud and that you have given the police their details to enable them to conduct their investigation. Then rite to the original bank / financial organisation and explain the same, make clear that you never authorised the claim firm to act and you you require any compensation due to be paid direct.

However, before you do that, i recommend you check when the deadlines were to claim - you may have missed them and may be best off accepting the money from the claims firm and then arguing with them over the charges. 

You do not, of course have to pay anything across to your wife and if the original financial product was in joint names you could pay her half less the claims firms costs, on the basis that she consented to those charges but you didn't.