Hi all,
My story is long, and rather boring... but also rather hellish. So i will try to condense it as much as poss... I need advice about what my next step should be, and whether i have a case against the HCEO and/or the solicitors (who happen to be the same company as the HCEO under a different name).
I own a shop. A very small shop. Selling fairly high value goods. We set up in January 2014, and in October 2014 we had to move premises as we'd outgrown the orignal ones. When we moved we told everyone we had an account with. Including company X, who we had a 60 day account with and owed some money to (£3000ish). When we notified them we had moved, i spoke to accounts person at company X and told them i was expecting a hefty VAT rebate, around the end of november, and it would pay their account off. There was a slight issue with the goods they'd supplied (they were available to customers direct at trade price, and therefore impossible to sell, they had originally agreed to take the goods back if they weren't sellable, they changed their mind... but this is kind of irrelevent, only setting the scene....)
We moved, i didn't hear anything, my VAT rebate was delayed as my dork of an accountant (now ex accountant) took so long putting them in, and i got an inspection as the rebate was indeed rather hefty.
Here's the meaty stuff, in case you were starting to nod off...
On 22nd december, i arrived at the shop at approx 10.10am to find my staff member in tears and a man saying he was a high court sheriff come to empty the shop. He said i had to pay £5789 or else he was going to empty my shop. I panicked. Proper panicked. And had a member of staff crying. I asked to see identification, he REFUSED to show me, and he hadn't shown it to the staff member when he came in. He made no attempt to disguise who he was to either the staff member, or indeed customers in the shop. He said he was employed by the High Court to take my stuff unless i paid then and there. I was literally speechless, and plugged my phone in to charge as the battery was flat, and i had to charge it to do phone banking to transfer the money as i didn't have my card on me. I DID NOT AT ANY POINT REFUSE TO PAY. When my phone charged, i logged onto banking and didn't have enough money, so i called my lovely friend who let me put the remainder on her credit card. She was having her nails done at the time so said she'd dig out her card and call me back in 2 mins. The HCEO was completely aware that I was intending to pay all the money.
I also rang my husband, who asked to speak to the HCEO. My husband is a police officer. HCEO told him he was here to collect the debt for company X, and my husband suggested HCEO letting me ring Company X as they'd take the items back (the debt consisted of 4 high value items). HCEO said it wasn't Company X's debt anymore. It was his, and nothing they said would make a difference. He refused to let me call them or the court.
My husband said he would come see me, as i was a snotty tearful mess. HCEO said if my husband attended in uniform he was breaking the law, and he would have him sacked. I said my husband wouldn't be in uniform, HCEO said if he attended at all he would be sacked. In hindsight i think he realised my husband might be more astute than a snot-covered me, and ask to see paperwork. I was not shown ANY paperwork, with ANY figures on. But stupidly had agreed to pay him whatever he wanted. Whilst all of this happened, HCEO had taken my payment from my card, and my friend had called back with her card. And he was starting to take payment for that. But, we live in the middle of nowhere, and our shop is an industrial building with no reception... so it took him a while to get the payment to go through. When my husband turned up (not in uniform and off duty) he asked to see the paperwork, and how the HCEO had got to the figure of 5,789. My husband being the non flappable type even had the sense to photocopy all the paperwork. The figure on the judgement that he had was 3,465. Whilst the HCEO was sat down, once he had been told i was paying and had started to run the payments through.... he started to note down things i had in the shop. And he also noted down my car registration. This was only done once i had agreed to pay. I know this for a fact as i agreed to pay as soon as i arrived, and my car wasn't actually there until i arrived.
I was given a receipt for the 5,789 (meant to have been 4,400 on one card, 1,400 on t'other). And he left.
The next day HCEO rang my shop in a mood, saying he had left his receipt book here. He hadn't. I told him i hadn't seen it.
Christmas then happened. And i had an accident and broke my back (i'm fine, just a bit drugged up).
Fast forward a little bit... (please note, in the meantime i've been completely freaked out by the whole situation, how a man can literally turn up and demand that amount of money from me, and come so close to taking all my stock and destroying what i have worked so hard for.... with NO warning. I panic everytime a car pulls up to my shop, and i've barely slept)
Yesterday (6-7 weeks after my visit from HCEO) i was doing my accounts for the VAT man, and saw on my online bank thingy that the day he came, he had taken £14 from my card instead of 1400 (i called my friend and she confirmed he had taken 4700 from her card (£300 more than they said they would)). I thought perhaps the HCEO had realised he was charging me too much. But, just in case, i rang the court to see if my CCJ thing had been lifted, as it had been paid (as far as i was aware) in full within a month of the judgement. And, when you're running a small business that relies on credit, and hoping to remortgage soon a CCJ is the worst thing to have...
And i find out the debt hasn't been paid off. So i ring the solicitors (Thomas Higgins) and they tell me the HCEO company (Andrew Wright) have not given them the money yet. I later found out they are the same company, but at the time they spoke to me like they were different companies, and that they had no control over what the HCEO were doing. I argued that they employed the HCEO company and therefore were responsible for them. They denied this and turned rather nasty. At this point i thought it was odd for a 'solicitor' company to be so very unprofessional. I demanded to know 1) where my money was and 2) why the CCJ hadn't been cleared. They said they'd look into it and call me back...
In the meantime i looked into fees and realised there are set fees that HCEOs can charge. And then i looked at all the court stuff i had since collected from the old address... and it dawned on me that i had perhaps been conned... I called them and said this, and they said that the HCEO had 'pressed the wrong buttons' on his machine... and therefore i still owed them £1100. I laughed and said i thought they owed me money as they had charged me FAR more than the fees they were allowed. He said if i didn't pay immediately they were coming back to take my stuff. He said they had charged fees for enforcement stages because i had refused to pay. TOTAL LIE. However, again, because i didn't want them turning up at my shop I have paid them the money they wanted. They took some money off, as a goodwill gesture.
1. the solicitors/HCEO had my correct address from 14th November, they have confirmed this. Yet they took the case to court with my old address. The court hearing was 1st december and all correspondence was sent to the old address. 24hrs later on 2nd December they got the writ from the High Court to attend my address... oh, what a surprise, the correct address. Again, nothing was received. No notice at all until they appeared on my doorstep.
2. the HCEO added over £2,300 to the court judgement for attending my address once
3. when questioned, they claimed i had refused to pay and therefore i was being charged for disposal etc of goods. This is untrue. I never ever ever did anything other than madly scrabble around to get the money. From the first second that i spoke to him, all i did was agree to pay every penny as i was SO freaked out. And no goods of mine were even touched. They say he entered my address at 10am and left at 11.05 which apparently is 'proof' that i refused to pay... when actually that is because he had crap signal.
Last night, i called ActionFraud, and asked if I had grounds to say they had been fraudulent. they said that if they have taken money for services that they hadn't provided (eg removal of goods) then yes it's fraudulent. They have given me a crime number etc.
I have emailed a complaint to both the solicitors/HCEO company advising them that i am going to complain to the relevant bodies (HCEOA and Law Ombudsman). The court have also sent me out a form to fill in to do something (appeal the court thing?).
So, that was a bit of a long one... does anyone know if i have grounds to get the court thing quashed? Maybe fees etc paid back? Could i claim for damages? Will they lift my CCJ? I am struggling to see the light at the end of this horrible tunnel. And it's causing no end of stress. :(
(sorry it is so long... ) thank you in advance.
My story is long, and rather boring... but also rather hellish. So i will try to condense it as much as poss... I need advice about what my next step should be, and whether i have a case against the HCEO and/or the solicitors (who happen to be the same company as the HCEO under a different name).
I own a shop. A very small shop. Selling fairly high value goods. We set up in January 2014, and in October 2014 we had to move premises as we'd outgrown the orignal ones. When we moved we told everyone we had an account with. Including company X, who we had a 60 day account with and owed some money to (£3000ish). When we notified them we had moved, i spoke to accounts person at company X and told them i was expecting a hefty VAT rebate, around the end of november, and it would pay their account off. There was a slight issue with the goods they'd supplied (they were available to customers direct at trade price, and therefore impossible to sell, they had originally agreed to take the goods back if they weren't sellable, they changed their mind... but this is kind of irrelevent, only setting the scene....)
We moved, i didn't hear anything, my VAT rebate was delayed as my dork of an accountant (now ex accountant) took so long putting them in, and i got an inspection as the rebate was indeed rather hefty.
Here's the meaty stuff, in case you were starting to nod off...
On 22nd december, i arrived at the shop at approx 10.10am to find my staff member in tears and a man saying he was a high court sheriff come to empty the shop. He said i had to pay £5789 or else he was going to empty my shop. I panicked. Proper panicked. And had a member of staff crying. I asked to see identification, he REFUSED to show me, and he hadn't shown it to the staff member when he came in. He made no attempt to disguise who he was to either the staff member, or indeed customers in the shop. He said he was employed by the High Court to take my stuff unless i paid then and there. I was literally speechless, and plugged my phone in to charge as the battery was flat, and i had to charge it to do phone banking to transfer the money as i didn't have my card on me. I DID NOT AT ANY POINT REFUSE TO PAY. When my phone charged, i logged onto banking and didn't have enough money, so i called my lovely friend who let me put the remainder on her credit card. She was having her nails done at the time so said she'd dig out her card and call me back in 2 mins. The HCEO was completely aware that I was intending to pay all the money.
I also rang my husband, who asked to speak to the HCEO. My husband is a police officer. HCEO told him he was here to collect the debt for company X, and my husband suggested HCEO letting me ring Company X as they'd take the items back (the debt consisted of 4 high value items). HCEO said it wasn't Company X's debt anymore. It was his, and nothing they said would make a difference. He refused to let me call them or the court.
My husband said he would come see me, as i was a snotty tearful mess. HCEO said if my husband attended in uniform he was breaking the law, and he would have him sacked. I said my husband wouldn't be in uniform, HCEO said if he attended at all he would be sacked. In hindsight i think he realised my husband might be more astute than a snot-covered me, and ask to see paperwork. I was not shown ANY paperwork, with ANY figures on. But stupidly had agreed to pay him whatever he wanted. Whilst all of this happened, HCEO had taken my payment from my card, and my friend had called back with her card. And he was starting to take payment for that. But, we live in the middle of nowhere, and our shop is an industrial building with no reception... so it took him a while to get the payment to go through. When my husband turned up (not in uniform and off duty) he asked to see the paperwork, and how the HCEO had got to the figure of 5,789. My husband being the non flappable type even had the sense to photocopy all the paperwork. The figure on the judgement that he had was 3,465. Whilst the HCEO was sat down, once he had been told i was paying and had started to run the payments through.... he started to note down things i had in the shop. And he also noted down my car registration. This was only done once i had agreed to pay. I know this for a fact as i agreed to pay as soon as i arrived, and my car wasn't actually there until i arrived.
I was given a receipt for the 5,789 (meant to have been 4,400 on one card, 1,400 on t'other). And he left.
The next day HCEO rang my shop in a mood, saying he had left his receipt book here. He hadn't. I told him i hadn't seen it.
Christmas then happened. And i had an accident and broke my back (i'm fine, just a bit drugged up).
Fast forward a little bit... (please note, in the meantime i've been completely freaked out by the whole situation, how a man can literally turn up and demand that amount of money from me, and come so close to taking all my stock and destroying what i have worked so hard for.... with NO warning. I panic everytime a car pulls up to my shop, and i've barely slept)
Yesterday (6-7 weeks after my visit from HCEO) i was doing my accounts for the VAT man, and saw on my online bank thingy that the day he came, he had taken £14 from my card instead of 1400 (i called my friend and she confirmed he had taken 4700 from her card (£300 more than they said they would)). I thought perhaps the HCEO had realised he was charging me too much. But, just in case, i rang the court to see if my CCJ thing had been lifted, as it had been paid (as far as i was aware) in full within a month of the judgement. And, when you're running a small business that relies on credit, and hoping to remortgage soon a CCJ is the worst thing to have...
And i find out the debt hasn't been paid off. So i ring the solicitors (Thomas Higgins) and they tell me the HCEO company (Andrew Wright) have not given them the money yet. I later found out they are the same company, but at the time they spoke to me like they were different companies, and that they had no control over what the HCEO were doing. I argued that they employed the HCEO company and therefore were responsible for them. They denied this and turned rather nasty. At this point i thought it was odd for a 'solicitor' company to be so very unprofessional. I demanded to know 1) where my money was and 2) why the CCJ hadn't been cleared. They said they'd look into it and call me back...
In the meantime i looked into fees and realised there are set fees that HCEOs can charge. And then i looked at all the court stuff i had since collected from the old address... and it dawned on me that i had perhaps been conned... I called them and said this, and they said that the HCEO had 'pressed the wrong buttons' on his machine... and therefore i still owed them £1100. I laughed and said i thought they owed me money as they had charged me FAR more than the fees they were allowed. He said if i didn't pay immediately they were coming back to take my stuff. He said they had charged fees for enforcement stages because i had refused to pay. TOTAL LIE. However, again, because i didn't want them turning up at my shop I have paid them the money they wanted. They took some money off, as a goodwill gesture.
1. the solicitors/HCEO had my correct address from 14th November, they have confirmed this. Yet they took the case to court with my old address. The court hearing was 1st december and all correspondence was sent to the old address. 24hrs later on 2nd December they got the writ from the High Court to attend my address... oh, what a surprise, the correct address. Again, nothing was received. No notice at all until they appeared on my doorstep.
2. the HCEO added over £2,300 to the court judgement for attending my address once
3. when questioned, they claimed i had refused to pay and therefore i was being charged for disposal etc of goods. This is untrue. I never ever ever did anything other than madly scrabble around to get the money. From the first second that i spoke to him, all i did was agree to pay every penny as i was SO freaked out. And no goods of mine were even touched. They say he entered my address at 10am and left at 11.05 which apparently is 'proof' that i refused to pay... when actually that is because he had crap signal.
Last night, i called ActionFraud, and asked if I had grounds to say they had been fraudulent. they said that if they have taken money for services that they hadn't provided (eg removal of goods) then yes it's fraudulent. They have given me a crime number etc.
I have emailed a complaint to both the solicitors/HCEO company advising them that i am going to complain to the relevant bodies (HCEOA and Law Ombudsman). The court have also sent me out a form to fill in to do something (appeal the court thing?).
So, that was a bit of a long one... does anyone know if i have grounds to get the court thing quashed? Maybe fees etc paid back? Could i claim for damages? Will they lift my CCJ? I am struggling to see the light at the end of this horrible tunnel. And it's causing no end of stress. :(
(sorry it is so long... ) thank you in advance.
Newbie in desperation - fraudulent HCEO?
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