Threatening debt management company loses licence

Tuesday 5th July 2011

The licence of debt management company Parkgate UK Limited has been revoked by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after the company sent a threatening letter to a debt collection agency.

The letter contained a threat of physical violence if the agency attempted to collect the debts of one of Parkgate’s clients.

OFT Director of Consumer Credit, David Fisher, said: “Threatening behaviour is unacceptable. The letter Parkgate sent was inappropriate and called into question the company’s fitness to hold a licence.”

Parkgate apologised for sending the threatening letter and said that it did not intend to act on the threat. The company’s licence was nevertheless revoked after the OFT concluded that the letter, combined with the company’s failings to demonstrate the skills and knowledge required to run a consumer credit business, meant that Parkgate was unfit to hold a licence.

 David Fisher continued, “We will not tolerate behaviour of this kind as it is a clear breach of the standards we expect from licensed businesses. We have therefore taken the decision to revoke its licence.”

Director at Atlantic Financial Management, Kevin Still, commented: “We welcome the on-going actions taken by the OFT during the consultation period on the updated Debt Management and Debt Collection guidance notes. It is important to establish professional standards between debt advisers/debt managers and the creditors and their collection agents.

“The updated guidance includes provisions for creditor obligations and the recent updates to the Lending Code and Debt Collection guidance should mean that negotiating with creditors and their agents using industry recognised protocols like the Common Financial Statement should become more widespread. As a Debt Managers Standards Association (DEMSA) member we are subject to a Code of Conduct and it is important that commercial debt solution providers conduct themselves in a highly professional manner.”

The OFT determined to revoke the company’s consumer credit licence on May 23 2011, allowing Parkgate a period to appeal. The period has now lapsed, and the company’s licence has been revoked. 

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

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Posted in: Company,licence,loses,Management,Threatening

EuroDebt celebrates 15 years with a prize giveaway

This month, as EuroDebt celebrates 15 years of successful operations within the debt solutions industry, they have decided to reward the intermediaries who have supported their growth through a series of incentives and prize giveaways.

On Monday June 27 at the Bridging and Commercial Awards 2011, Gary Thorpe of NMS financial became one of the first brokers to win one of EuroDebt’s enviable prizes. After winning the raffle, Gary was handed a set of limited edition Mont Blanc Writers Edition Mark Twain pens, worth over £1500. “I never win anything,” said Gary, “So this was a wonderful surprise.”He added: “I have subsequently registered as an introducer with the company, so hopefully I’ll win a Breitling too.”Vance Parsons, Sales Director of Eurodebt, explained that as part of the anniversary celebrations, they would give out a bottle of Champagne to each successful debt solution referral, as well as entering the broker into a prize draw to win a Breitling, worth over £4200. “As a company, we have evolved and adapted alongside the industry over the last 15 years. Our continual success has been supported by our network of franchisees, who each work closely with the growing number of  introducers on a local level, “said Vance. “We want these introducers to celebrate our 15-year anniversary with us, and it is for this reason that we are delighted to be able to reward them with these prizes, as well as a series of incentives which will be announced in the upcoming months.”
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

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Posted in: celebrates,EuroDebt,giveaway,prize,years

Evictions up as rents hit record high

The number of court orders to evict tenants has risen by 9 per cent in the last year, as landlords’ crackdown on unreliable tenants.

There has been a substantial increase in the number of tenants receiving court orders, facing eviction as they are unable to keep up with monthly rental payments. With the surge in demand for rental properties, landlords have become less lenient with tenants who fail to meet their rental commitments.   According to research conducted by Templeton LPA, the specialist practice of LPA Receivers, the number of tenants in severe financial difficulty has risen significantly since the last quarter, with nearly 8,700 more tenants over two months in arrears. In the second quarter of this year, 74,492 tenants in England and Wales were in severe arrears – a 13 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2010. This also represents an increase of 4 per cent compared to 71,483 in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, tenancies in severe arrears represent just 2.1 per cent of all properties in the private rental sector in England and Wales. The growth in tenant arrears has been mirrored by a rise in the number of tenants being evicted through court orders. In the last quarter, 24,170 tenants faced eviction notices – an increase of 9 per cent on the 22,091 a year ago. But the change is not just annual. In quarter one of 2011, there were 5 per cent more than in the last quarter of 2010. Paul Jardine, Director and Receiver at Templeton LPA, said: “There’s no denying that tenant finances have been under mounting pressure in the last six months. Rents have risen consistently in the past year to a record high, and the cost of living is taking its toll. This is causing many tenants on lower incomes to fall further and further behind with monthly payments. But with demand so strong for rental properties, and rental income providing the lion’s share of annual return at present, many landlords are becoming less lenient with arrears, and seeking court orders to remove non-paying tenants before they themselves fall into mortgage arrears”The increase in tenant arrears and evictions has not yet fed through into buy-to-let mortgage arrears. In the last quarter, the number of buy-to-let mortgages more than three months in arrears actually dropped by 8 per cent compared to the previous quarter. However, at 29,400 there are still nearly three times as many buy-to-let mortgages in severe arrears compared with three years ago. The mentality of landlords has shifted, with them dealing more swiftly with late payees, to avoid getting into financial difficulty themselves. Paul added: “The full impact of public sector spending cuts is yet to be felt, and rent rises are unlikely to slow in the immediate future. Tenant finances will continue to be placed under pressure, and it is crucial that landlords do not delay in contacting tenants to nip any potential payment problems in the bud as amicably as possible. Otherwise, buy-to-let mortgage arrears will begin to climb as the year progresses.”
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

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Actress hides rotting mum for £200 pension

An actress who left her mother’s body to rot in her family home in order to claim her pension has been jailed for 11 months.

TV extra Hazel Maddock, 61, acknowledged leaving her 95-year old mother Olive’s body rotting at the family home in Wallasey, Merseyside for between two and six months.

While the body lay ‘wedged’ behind a bedroom door in the mouse and rat infested house, Maddock claimed £176.92 of her mother’s state pension and a £34.44 pension credit payment.

Maddock, who has appeared in Hollyoaks and Brookside, admitted unlawfully preventing the burial of her mother and fraudulently claiming benefits, reports the Independent. 

A neighbour alerted police to the body last August, who then entered the house Olive shared with her daughter and granddaughter and discovered her rotting body wedged behind her bedroom door.
Judge Gerald Clifton, sentencing Maddock alongside her daughter Jasmine Maddock, 35, told her: “Honour thy father and thy mother, says the book of Exodus, and the act of burial is one of those forms of honour. When that act is not completed, with the intention of gaining money, then the crime is a particularly despicable one.”

Jasmine Maddock, who admitted leaving a corpse unburied, was given a 26 week suspended sentence and a 250 hour community service order.

Sentenced along with her mother at Liverpool Crown Court, Jasmine was told by Judge Clifton that leaving her grandmother’s body to rot at the house was a “gross effrontery to the behaviour of normal people”.

The judge, who acknowledged claims that artist Jasmine was “under the thumb” of her aggressive mother, said to Maddock: “You say that your difficult relationship with your mother prevented you from caring for her in her last days. I do not accept that. Your motivation for preventing the burial of your mother was venal.”

Maddock’s defence lawyer, Sarah Phelan, told the court: “Hazel Maddock was not using the money to buy lavish things, or fancy jewellery.
“The conditions in which she lived would be, to the normal citizen, uninhabitable. But she was thinking about preserving her existence and the one thing which she had always had...the family home.”

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Posted in: Actress,hides,pension,rotting

1600 jobs at risk as fashion firm falls

Tuesday 28th June 2011

A women’s fashion firm has been put into administration, raising fears that up to 1,600 jobs will be lost.

Jane Norman has stores across the nation, and is the latest high street retailer to experience the effects of decreased consumer spending. It has debts of £140 million and closed 89 stores on Saturday. It is alleged that accountancy firm Zolfo Cooper are still hoping to find a buyer for the chain.According to the BBC, a statement from the accountancy said: "Following a period of testing trading conditions, the company has experienced severe cash flow difficulties which resulted in the Board requesting the appointment of the Administrators. "Discussions continue with relevant parties and further detail will be provided when made available."Other reports suggest that a pre-pack administration deal could be underway, as department store chain Debenhams and knitwear firm Edinburgh Woollen Mill have been cited as potential bidders. This latest failure, and Jane Norman’s fall into administration, follows that of Moben Kitchens and the owner of Dolphin bathrooms, who were put into administration last week. Mothercare, Comet and HMV are also closing some stores.
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

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Solicitor jailed for £250k fraud

Carlisle based property solicitor Pauline Butler has been jailed for two years after being convicted of carrying out a £250,000 fraud.

Butler, 53, committed the offences, which included stealing a £49,000 inheritance belonging to Elizabeth Harkness - a woman with learning difficulties, as a last ditch attempt to stop her Lowther Street practice from being closed down. Over a period of nearly four and a half years, Butler moved money from her clients’ accounts to her own business account. The presiding judge, Paul Batty QC, told Butler:  “This type of case causes considerable damage to the public confidence in the legal system.”Between 1993 and 2008, Butler ran her law firm which specialised in property, wills and family law. Despite investing more than £90,000 into the business during 2007, by 2008 Butler’s law firm was unable to meet its liabilities, the News and Star reports. As a result, she began to secretly transfer money from clients’ accounts, creating fictitious bills to explain the transfer to her business account. If a client wanted to close an account, she shifted money from another client’s account to cover the shortfall. Prosecutor Dick Binstead said: “This was really a game of financial musical chairs – and the flaw in the system, of course, was that when the music stopped, there would be a day of reckoning.” Butler, who admitted a single count of fraud and a charge of false accounting, said that as a result of her failing business, she suffered two ‘mental breakdowns’.After client complaints, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) began an investigation in 2008 which revealed that Butler had stolen around £250,000 from clients.The relatives of deceased Elsie O’Neill lost around £170,000 worth of inheritance after Butler charged them for 43 bills, only three of which were genuine. Butler also illegally transferred £21,000 from Rose Blaylock’s account, who had asked Butler to help her son after a divorce and house sale. QC for Butler, Paul Greaney, told the court: “She has made no attempt at all to shift responsibility or to suggest that any other was to blame for what occurred. She was at pains to make plain that the responsibility for these crimes was hers and hers alone.“Her conduct was not motivated, as is accepted, by greed. As your honour will know, in many such cases defendants – solicitors and other professional advisors who have abused their trust – have bought expensive homes with the proceeds, and often expensive motor cars and lived extravagant lifestyles. Pauline Butler lived in a modest home.“She lived a modest lifestyle and that is because her crimes were driven not by greed but rather, albeit wrongly, by a desire to keep her business running and to keep her employees, to whom she felt considerable loyalty, in work.”Butler was struck off as a solicitor in July 2009. Her clients were reimbursed by the Solicitors’ Compensation Fund, who paid out £600,000 in compensation to her clients, although the total value of claims for money lost was around £900,000. It is now believed that all clients have been fully reimbursed.
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

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View the original article here

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Posted in: fraud,jailed,Solicitor

Debt problems increase as home repossessions set to surge

There could be debt problems for thousands of homeowners after a leading bank chief warned that a surge in the number of home repossessions would follow if the base rate of interest increases.

Richard Banks, Chief Executive Officer of UK Asset Resolution, the government company that manages the £80 billion mortgage portfolio of the bailed out banks, also warned that the government’s efforts to try and help people that are struggling with their mortgage debt (by keeping them in their homes), it could lead to more severe debt problems in future.

The organisation is the country’s fifth-largest mortgage lender and has around 750,000 customers, although 23,000 of those mortgages are over six months behind with payments.

It was set up by the government to run the mortgages of nationalised lenders such as Bradford & Bingley and parts of Northern Rock.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper Mr Banks said that lenders need to adopt a tough love approach, and that the projected number of people falling behind on payments could get ’scary’ if lenders did nothing to prepare for inevitable higher rates.

He warned: “You can see if you don’t do something about it, you can see a tsunami.

“It’s treating customers fairly, not nicely, because if you can’t afford your mortgage, you are only increasing your indebtedness.

“If we allow you to increase your indebtedness, that’s not really fair to you.”

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Posted in: increase,problems,Repossessions,surge