Wednesday 23rd February 2011
A Debt Management Today reader has taken a claims company to court after allegedly falling victim to a 'no-win-no-fee' scam.
When 48-year-old Anthony Carwardine, from Gillingham, was cold-called by Beneficial Claims approximately two years ago, he was so eager to get his debts being wiped off that he borrowed £2,000 from a friend in order to pay the fee quoted by them. The company promise to wipe off certain debts for clients using legal loopholes.He said: “I received a call from Beneficial Claims who said that they could help with a loan I took out with Lloyds TSB in 2005. They told me all I had to do was pay an administrative charge of £200 to look into my case.”“Things like this never happen to me but I thought it sounded good so I’d give it a go.”After receiving Anthony’s money, the company asked him to provide paperwork and details of his loans. They then supposedly scrutinised his loan policies in order to find out whether they were legally enforceable. A few weeks later, the company told Anthony that he had a “really good case” and assured him they would be able to take on his case after he paid a one-off fee of £2,000 on a no-win-no-fee basis.Thinking that he would soon be debt free from having his hefty loans quashed, he borrowed money to pay the fee. Anthony was assured that should his claim be unsuccessful, he’d receive a full refund.“They said the loan from Lloyds was unenforceable because of a loophole in the law and they also said that 99 per cent of their cases against Lloyds they won.“I thought I had nothing to lose and it would give me one less thing to worry about, seeing as I was going through a divorce at the time.”Some time passed, and Anthony sat back in the hope that he would soon receive word that he had been freed from debt. To his delight, Beneficial Claims soon got back to him and told him that he could cease paying his lender (Lloyds) as of October 2009, which he did.But after stopping repayments on his loan, it became apparent that Lloyds were not aware that their legitimate loan agreement with Anthony had been ‘wiped off’. It wasn’t long before debt collectors were knocking at Mr Carwardine’s door.Anthony did his best to find out what was happening. He called Beneficial Claims and visited their website, only to find that they were now trading under the name of ‘We Fight Any Claim’.Solicitors advised Anthony to log records of any phone calls and to write letters to the company. But the only written response he has had to date is a notification from Beneficial saying that his claim had been cancelled as per his own request.“They said I cancelled my claim because I asked for my money back, which wasn’t true,” said Anthony.Astounded by this case, the Debt Management Today team contacted Beneficial Claims/ We Fight Any Claim to try and uncover the truth. We were told that our questions couldn’t be answered over the phone but that they would be dealt with via email.So we emailed the address given to us, which was in fact yet another claims company that we hadn’t heard of, ‘YesLoans.tv’.We have not received a reply from YesLoans, We Fight Any Claim, or Beneficial Claims.Mr Carwardine estimates that the ordeal has cost him close to £3,000, after taking time off work through stress and calling premium rate phone numbers in order to find a solution.He has now taken the company to court in the hope that he will receive compensation and justice.“I hope no-one else falls victim to this company in the same way that I have,” said Anthony.Manchester debt firm is liquidated owing creditors over £2.2m
Wednesday 11th August 2010
Bankrupt football legend probed by police over loan fraud
Monday 2nd August 2010
Mortgage broker ordered to repay £1.5m of client money used to pay off debts
Wednesday 14th July 2010
Barclays lifts lid on banking write-offs
Wednesday 20th February 2008
Send To Friend Print
RSS Feed News Archive If you have any queries about this news story or our news section, please contact us
Posted in: 
0 comments:
Post a Comment