Money stolen - small claims court help please

[Brunomars65]

I had £2, 700 stolen from me by a plumber and I am really struggling to get it back or get a CCJ against him. Now my letters to him are being returned saying he doesnt live there anymore and I'm really worried the whole case is going to get thrown out. Currently the case is with the district judge in the county court of the town I live in. I have tried 192.com but is there any other way I can find his current address? I only know his full name and 1 previous address. Any advice would be very welcome, I saved for years for this money and it has caused me no end of stress and upset having it stolen from me.

Are the police involved?

No, I rang them when it first happened and they refuse to do anything stating that it is a "civil matter" they just told me I had to go through the small claims court. Police will not help at all.

Has he stolen cash, or have you paid him to do a job which he has not done?

Paid him money by bank transfer to order the bathroom stuff which he did then he backed out of the job, money was refunded to him from showroom and he didnt give it back to me. I know how stupid I was to give him the money but theres nothing I can do about that now.

What does “with the district court” mean? Do you have a ruling if so you can go to enforcement, you can use a bailiff/ tracing agency for this (I’m assuming the usual internet stalking hasn’t helped?)

Have you contacted the trading standards officer?

Is your claim against him personally or his company?

They don’t deal with this anymore

When I phone all they can tell me is that it has been referred to a district judge at my hometown county court for a decision which can take up to 6 weeks. Usual Internet stalking cant find his address unfortunately

Yes contacted trading standards and all they could suggest was going through small claims court. They were really unhelpful

I'd post about him all over social media and tell people to watch out for him anyway.

I don’t understand who you don’t have a court date in the small claims court? Are you waiting on one? You both need to be in the room for the case to be heard.

if you haven’t had a court hearing you can’t do anything yet

im confused. If it’s with court then you don’t need to be sending him letters etc. The court does their bit now

Have you tried your local social media pages to find out where he lives? Someone will know him.

I posted but the post was removed

Get your CCJ against him then you need to take action to get the debt enforced. You can only do this if you know where he is though, so I would use a tracing agency to do this.

I can recommend a reputable debt collector if you PM me. The only reason I say PM is I don't want to put his name on Mumsnet. It's fully reputable and he and his company can be found on LinkedIn.

Is his business registered on gov.uk? If so then I would just use his address on there.

I used a company called "UK tracing" and they couldn't find him. Contacted a private investigator and they wanted £500 plus VAT.
Thank you, I will message you

His old address is listed on there

Are you sure?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/

Yes trading standards don’t help you getting a refund or sorting your dispute.

I've been through this process quite recently.

Have you issued the claim against him personally or his company - depending on who the claim was issued against, depends on what avenues are open to you going forward.
If you have issued a claim against him personally in the Small Claims Court, when was this done and have you received a sealed copy of the Claim Form back from the Court yet? If you done it through Money Claim Online they will have served the CF on the Defendant. He then had to file an Acknowledgment of Service followed by his Defence a couple of weeks later.
You say the matter is currently with the District Judge, do you know why? What stage is the claim actually at? Usually once a claim is issued it only goes to the District Judge for any applications to be dealt with, or directions. As it with your local Court it has been transferred from the Bulk Centre where most small claims are issued. A transfer is usually triggered by the Defendant filing a Defence - if this has been done, you should have been given a copy and it should his address on there.
It would be useful to know how the claim was issued, where it was issued and what stage you are currently at.
With regards to tracing him, have you tried a process server. We use these regularly and they are very good at finding people - you will need to give him as much information you can, his name, address (that you used), name of company if there is one, his bank details that you used, the name on the account etc x

Most process servers are much cheaper than what you have been quoted and will only charge you if they are able to find him...its worth doing a search on Google and sending off some emails

Google “tracing agent”. They will find him.