There
is an oft repeated saying in Tamil meaning that ‘the entry of tortoise and
ameena is unwelcome’ ~not sure of its origin.
Nothing to say about the tortoise, though it continues to be of great
value for smugglers - but ameena [a Court bailiff] entering a place armed with
a court order to recover money for sure would not be welcome for anybody. A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old
French baillis, bail "custody, charge] is a manager, overseer or
custodian; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is
given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offices and duties vary
greatly. In Switzerland, such Official
is known as Vogt. During Shakespeare's
time, they had acquired the nickname bum-bailiffs, perhaps because they
followed debtors very closely behind them; in France, the term pousse-cul
(literallypush-arse), was similarly used for their equivalent officers.
Financial
institutions would adopt various methods to recover their dues from
loanees. Sometimes they resort to
unlawful methods of pressuring those who had taken the loan too. Here is a story of a woman, bullied by banks
for 5 years over a £16k debt.
Money Mail
carried this interesting story a couple of months back. Jennifer Walker has been harassed for five
years over debts ~ that aren’t hers.
Though she has frequently
protested her innocence, the demands keep coming. She has been contacted by 24
different firms, had bailiffs shouting through her letterbox and received
intimidating letters on Christmas Eve from debt collectors threatening to
repossess her house. She has explained to banks, phone companies, mail order
firms and credit card providers that she is not the person they are looking for
— but it makes no difference. In total, she has been accused of owing £16,000.
But the reason Jennifer can’t prove her innocence is because the person who
owes this money has an almost identical date of birth and name. The
35-year-old, from Fareham, Hampshire, says: ‘When speaking with these firms on
the phone, I’ve been in tears. It really got to me having to come home to piles
of letters demanding I pay all this money.
‘It felt
horrible that they actually thought I was a bad person not repaying all this
money. It made my stomach churn and I found it difficult to concentrate on my
life.’ The first letter accusing her of owing money — some £5,543 — arrived in
2010 from Santander. Jennifer told the bank she’d never had any dealings with
it and contacted the credit reference agencies to amend the mistake. But the
bank refused to believe her, and so kept chasing her for the money. Then more
letters started pouring in, including ones from Lloyds, Nationwide, Halifax and
Capital One. Most were sent through debt collectors. Every time a demand
arrived, Jennifer rang up to explain it wasn’t for her.
At times,
she has received up to four letters a day. She’s had threats of bailiffs coming
to seize goods or that money could be taken from her salary. On one occasion
Jennifer was sleeping, having worked a night shift at her former job as an
office manager, and was woken by a bailiff banging on her door. She says: ‘He
was shouting through the letterbox: “I know you’re in there!” ‘It was so
stressful to be hounded like that. My life has changed. I can’t do anything
because I fail credit checks through no fault of my own. It’s affected my
family and my mother has been in tears.’
Occasionally,
firms have admitted making an error. In November 2014, a debt collection agency
acknowledged it had made a mistake chasing her for a £2,800 debt to Lloyds, and
paid her £500 as compensation. But she is still being chased by 13 firms and
there are debts of £12,637 against her name. Jennifer’s ordeal highlights the
struggle innocent people face if the wrong information appears on their credit
file. In UK, If you get a black mark on your credit file, a credit reference
agency is not obliged to tell you it exists. You often don’t find out until you
are refused credit. However, to correct the information, the onus is on you to
prove you’re not a bad debtor. And only the company which made the original entry
on your credit file can change it.
Jennifer’s
ordeal seems to stem from Santander’s original error which linked her address
to that of a woman with a near-identical name. Despite her request to amend the
error, the bank failed to do so. This meant that every other company owed money
by her namesake continued to wrongly pester her. It is reported that after intervention of
Money Mail, the firms currently chasing
debts from Jennifer finally apologize — and immediately cleared her name.
With regards
– S. Sampathkumar
8th
Oct 2015.
Source : www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/
