HOW TO DEAL WITH COURT BUSINESS CENTRES/ARE THEY AUTHORISED AS COURTS?

Hello Everyone and Thanks for all those who try to help all of us in our time of need.

This story I hope shall strike a few facts with many and hope that a solution can be found.

Few years ago our Son had used his Mum`s account ,without her knowledge to apply for a Guarantor loan from a company called George Banco.Com .Having applied and accepted the funds were received into her account and knowing her details he transferred them to his account and gambled online and of course losing it all .

We never realised this state of affairs until after over a year and a half later when she started receiving letters from the said company for repayment of the loan which now according to them came to be £10K with interest,to which our response was a total shock and disbelief as My Wife had never checked her account regularly and didn`t even know such a transaction took place.

Of course, letters were written denying any involvement and explaining what really happened and also asked for hard evidence that this loan was personally applied by my wife as in the final section of the alleged contract there was a section for an electronic signature that were never activated by my wife but according to this company were but without any verification by them to check that the person was really the one that was actually applying for this loan ,as happens with Guarantor loans that they ring and speak to you on the phone to verify the details and then ensure that is the case which releases the funds to the correct person.

None of this had taken place and my wife didn`t know anything and yet according to them since the money was passed through from her account then the debt was now her responsibility for repayment as a Guarantor.

We kept writing to various other Companies which kept cropping up to chase this alleged Debt ,at one point one of which asked for £22K !
Last year a firm of Solicitors were also involved who took the case to the Northampton County Court Business Centre and now obtained an order to pay this alleged Debt by £75.00 per month until finish.

Since we never received any notification before hand this was a blow out the blue that weren`t expected and now need to respond to this Order.

Hopefully after which we can have some advice as to how to repeal this unfair,unlawful and totally false claim from my wife .

Thanking you All in advance and awaiting your responses urgently.

L.E.

legaleagle wrote:We kept writing to various other Companies which kept cropping up to chase this alleged Debt ,at one point one of which asked for £22K !
Last year a firm of Solicitors were also involved who took the case to the Northampton County Court  Business Centre and now obtained an order to pay  this alleged Debt by £75.00 per month until finish.

Since we never received any notification before hand this was a blow out the blue that weren`t expected and now need to respond to this Order.

When was the court case?  If there was a valid reason why you didn't respond and defend the case, for example if you didn't receive any of the paperwork, then you may be able to apply to have the judgement Set Aside.  This is supposed to be done "promptly" but I don't know if there is any hard and fast limit.   As well as a valid reason for not responding, your application should also show that you have a defence with some chance of success.

Do you think there is any chance that your mail was being interfered with, so that correspondence addressed to your wife did not get to her?  There should have been quite a few bits of correspondence initially the letter officially giving notice that court proceedings would be raised, then the claim form from the court and I think also something confirming that they were applying for a Judgement in Default.

By the way, you use the term "Guarantor loan". Was your wife a guarantor, and they're claiming under the guarantee, or was the whole loan taken out in her name? The advance being paid into her account sounds like the latter.

Hi There,
Yes it was taken on her name.My wife never knew about this at all until they first contacted her by a letter asking for the repayment which was a couple of years ago.
We would have thought that any Guarantor Loan Company should have verified the
real identity of the person making the application online.
We heard of another Guarantor Loan Company in this case "Amigos "who phones the person directly to verify the information and the identity of the applicant and then once confirmed,only then the funds are released.
This Company though, must have released the funds without any checks at all but just at the click of a button which could have been by anybody pretending to be her!How is this even legal?If this is the case then anybody who knows anybody else`s account details -and this can be parents,brothers,sisters,close friends,colleagues etc.-can apply and receive funds and never having to worry about repayments!

Surely there has to be legal requirements to prevent this happening.

We didn`t receive anything before the Judgement correspondence came through even if we did on my Wife`s name, I would have sent them back as my wife doesn`t live here all the time anymore as she stays abroad to look after her aged Mum.
In short what I need to know is what we need to do to cancel this alleged Debt that my wife had nothing to do with and any advice shall be much appreciated while I thank you All for a great platform to be able to discuss such issues and all your efforts to help each other.

Hi Flying Fish,
Thank your for your response.
Please note that there was no other paperwork received for the Court hearing the decision of which must have been taken in absentia.

Even if there was any correspondence on my wife`s name,I would have returned them with a note on the envelope "Person not living here anymore" as my wife doesn`t live here permanently as she attends her old Mum who lives abroad .

In short I wouldn`t have known if they ever did.

What I need to know now is the next step/s to take in order to cancel this alleged Debt.

Thank you and God Bless.

Once again I need to ask some more questions about the case here as there seems to be a lot of info which becomes confusing to say the least.I hope someone would be able to find a way through this maze.
The Claim forms are from Northampton County Court Business Centre..Does this make any difference were they from the County Court itself in terms of its enforceability?

Since we never received any pre-court procedures from the Company before we received this Claim from, how can we write to the Court and the alleged Debt Company to request this to be complied with, before the Claim Form is considered to be completed?
Is it possible to delay the time table after having received the Claim letter to put all those procedures in place first?
Please revert soonest if you can while I thank you All for your efforts .
L.E.

Hi,
I'm afraid I'm not quite clear where you stand today. In the first post you referred to them having obtained a court order for payment, which implies that the case had been decided. As you say without any input from yourselves.

You now mention claim forms from Northampton County Court Business Centre. Is this a new claim, or was the case in fact not decided?