This is a bit of a weird one. Around 11 years ago we had an intruder come into our home (we were at home at the time and had stupidly left a side door unlocked). The thief stole my DH’s wallet, which contained his driving license among other things. Police were called out, fingerprints taken, driving licence reported stolen/reissued, insurance claim made, all was dealt with.
we were told that the offender was caught but it didn’t make it to court for whatever reason.
Fast forward to around 5/6 years later and my DH received a really bizarre letter from the NHS, inviting him to take part in a clinical study for people with Hepatitis. My DH does not have hepatitis, so we were very confused. He phoned his GP who said it was on his records that he had hepatitis and that he had also spent time in prison. Both were incorrect. DH has never been to prison, has been in employment since we have been together (25 years). So for some reason his medical file was incorrect, and made us think that someone had been sent to prison and used my husbands identity. Anyway, we got medical file corrected and thought no more about it.
Fast forward to last month and husband received a letter from a debt collector saying he owed xx amount of money for failing to attend a court summons. The court was based up north, we are down in the south. No idea what this letter was on about, so called the court to be told the fine was for jumping a train in 2023 and failing to pay for a ticket. This was not my husband, we have never been in the city they said this occurred, husband owns a car and hasn’t even been on a train for about 20 years.
so the issue is that someone has committed a crime and used my DH’s details. The court think it is my DH. DH contacted debt collector and court and said it wasn’t him. Also reported to Action Fraud. Action Fraud have emailed back to say they can’t help, they don’t have enough information to take this further. The court have said that my husband has to attend in person to sign a declaration. This court is probably about 4-5 hours from where we live. No one seems to want to help, it’s almost like the onus is on us to prove DH is innocent. Would anyone know the best way for dealing with this? How can someone commit a crime, say they are someone they are not and get away with it? My only guess is it’s related to the theft of his wallet 11 years ago. Just looking for any advice on how we go about proving it wasn’t him, without having to drive halfway up the country. Thanks