Should I be worried?

[newmummybear2019]

Can anyone help?

Received this e-mail which was from person who owes me money to solicitor:

'could you contact your client (me) and ask him to stop harassing my family members on fb and messenger otherwise I will be taking legal action against him and a counter claim will be put forward for the violent threats and distress he is causing for me and my children and after plastering my home address and childrens school over the interment I am now concerned for my children's safety I have copies of all the messages and things your client has been posting and copies of all messaged your client has been sending and replies he has received and legal action will be taken against him'

Firstly, all I did was send 'Hi, have you heard from 'xxx' he owes me money and has deleted my number so can't get in touch, do you know where he is as he's done a runner' to about 15 people with the same surname, only one person replied saying he didn't want to get involved and I said 'OK no problem, thanks' the rest didn't even read my messages (it's still a white unfilled tick in my FB inbox)

Secondly, I didn't mention her address or her childs school anywhere, that is complete and utter lies and I also have a copy of all messages sent which can prove this.

I've got nothing to be worried about right? I've done absolutely nothing wrong and if these people go to the police and say i've been harassing them then it's just wasting police time and they won't be happy right?

What about the fact she is blatantly lying, can I do anything about that? Sue him for slander or defamation or whatever it's called? Can use this as proof that he is a lying piece of shit when i'm trying to get my money back so will it work in my favour?

Sorry about the bunch of questions any help much appreciated thanks.

I'm surprised no ones asked this yet.....

How much are we talking about OP..?

I'm surprised no ones asked this yet.....

Darn, I thought you were going to ask why a man would choose newmummybear as a user name. I'm all for anonymity only but that is just a bit creepy.

I agree with Joh66 too,

I misunderstood about the solicitor, you said the person who owes you money replied to him with "tell your client" but then said the solicitor isn't actually your solicitor and was just sending a letter to try and get her to reveal her address for him to give to you but then you also said he's legit solicitor but not one working for you and is just a nice guy which is why o thought he was a mate.

I'm still confused because the email the solicitor has forwarded to you has the woman calling you the client, yet he's not acting on your behalf and isn't your solicitor which is why I'm asking if it would be legal for him, to be attempting to obtain someone's address by saying you are his client and he's you solicitor when that's not the case. If he's acting unprofessionally and I'm thinking he's doing something nice for a stranger whose phoned his workplace and tricks her into thinking he's employed by you and isn't, then it could look pretty shady.

Maybe @NewarkShark can advise. It's sounds a bit iffy if a solicitor can send letters implying their firm is handling your case when they actually aren't and then also handing you info given when you're not actually a client hiring the services of the firm isn't unprofessional or a misuse of personal data.

I jumped to the conclusion you knew him and he was a mate as you don't often hear of solicitors working for free just to be nice. 😀

One message is not harassment but it doesn’t look great that you have sent multiple messages to people with the same surname telling them she owes you money and “did a runner”, that is the part that would not be looked favourable on bya judge if this ever makes it to the small claims court.
It’s one thing to contact people to ask if they know her or have any contact information for her, it’s another to contact many people you don’t even know are relations of hers to tell them she owes you money, it can be seen as you trying to embarrass and shame her into action which is never viewed well.

You may not see anything wrong with what you did but that doesn’t change the fact that it was not the right thing to do.

To have any chance of getting a judgement against her you will need to do things the right way.

@newmummybear2019

How much money does she owe you?

£5,000

Thanks for all the advice everyone, spoke to Citizens Advice today and they told me to make an appointment with my local office for help creating the letter before action which I will do once I receive her address or solicitors details as apparently I can send it to her solicitors office if I don't have an address

So just a waiting game now, will take a long time to get this sorted but that's just the way it is I guess.

Someone got in touch with me today, who isn't related to her and had gotten scammed by her this is what he said:

Yeah man, i was doing the exact same thing you are mate but gave up because the system is fucked. Theyre not liable to pay me now as X's business went bust. They do this all the time, start a business, get free labour and then go bankrupt and leave everyone in the shit. I would pay to see X again and id knock his teeth into the back of his head. That X is a lying sack of shit that needs putting down. Absolute scum. I had about 20 people lined up behind me ready to sue them but they got away with it. £1,000 they owe me.

I went through solicitors, made her pay me bout 300/400 and then stopped payments and got away with it. Theyre horrible people man, no shame or regret.
She had me going with that same story for about a year before they fucked off.
If u ever speak to them again tell them that youve been speaking to me and you know exactly what their plans are. They will try everything in their power to avoid paying you.
Take it as a very expensive lesson snd dont lend people money... especially scum like that

I asked him how did they get away with stopping payments he said:

They vanished, all i had was an email address. The only reason i got any money was most likely cos i plastered their faces all over facebook labelling them con artists and they didnt like the shit storm that was brewing. Had loads of people ready to go find them and do some damage. They mustve moved away and just stopped getting in touch.

I would like to help this guy out but would it be illegal for me to give him her address/her e-mail or her solicitors contact details once I receive them?

I got a e-mail from solicitor earlier today saying

'Your debtor has offered to pay at the rate of £20.00 per week. She has however indicated that she does not wish you to continue contacting her or her family by Facebook, Messenger or other means.

She proposes to reassess her financial position in 4 weeks’ time.

Please advise if the offer is acceptable. '

Not sure whether to accept this or not, if she does pay £20 a week and just suddenly stops and disappears again what would I do? The fact she has said that and made this offer proves that she does indeed owe me money so i'll keep hold of all these e-mails.

I have no intention of speaking to her or any of her family again that is no issue whatsoever but does speaking to other (non family) people who have been scammed by her and trying to help them out be hurtful for me trying to get my money back? If she finds out i'm helping other people can she stop payments I mean?

Thanks again. Hopefully that message wasn't too confusing.

[Edited by MNHQ to remove identifying info]

Can't edit my post, can someone remove the name and put an X please don't want any trouble by putting names on here, thanks.

Report your post and they will amend it

Done, thanks.

Why on earth would you give her address to someone who has lined up people to 'do some damage'?
Honestly why do you need to ask?

What is this solicitor playing at acting for you for nothing ? This doesn't add up.

No sorry I didn't mean address I meant e-mail address and her solicitors details, can I give him those?

And I don't know myself to be honest i'm as surprised as everyone else that he is agreeing to help me out for free, just an absolute nice guy I guess. I'll give him something for his troubles, I won £30 at bingo so will give him that as a thank you

Are you sure he is not doing it on a no win no fee basis? No you should not share the details unless you plan a joint action or are willing to report to police.

Ah he might be, could just be a misunderstanding I will talk to him tomorrow and sort it out

And OK thanks for letting me know but can I ask why? Surely he has a right to know her solicitors details at least so he can try get his money back that way? Police won't do anything they are useless unfortunately.

Well you did say her address/email so that's why I was confused about your intentions.

Why is this man your problem? I'm also not convinced about the solicitor contacting third parties on your behalf out of the goodness of his heart. Maybe you should recheck any correspondence with him.

He's not my problem but I just feel sorry for him and everyone else that she and her husband have scammed and would like to help them out if possible. Both of them should be locked up yet they continue to get away with it and ruin people's lives over and over again.

Yes I will do that tomorrow, thanks.

Well good luck it's a huge amount to lose. I'd probably just concentrate on that now you at least have contact with them.

Not heard anything today but I did speak to Citizens Advice about whether I can legally give out her information to the other victims and they said yes I can including her address if I ever find it out.

Spoke to ICO just to make sure as they advised me to do that and they said -

'If you're just acting in an individual capacity, then data protection law does not apply to you. This is known as 'domestic processing'

'I asked what individual capacity means they said -

'Not in relation to a professional or commercial activity, like posting on social media or keeping an address book of family and friends'

So looks like i'm well within my rights to give out her details as I see fit (even including her address), i'll try and make a group on Facebook messenger and add all these poor people who have been scammed and see if I can help them out in any way.

Why though? One of them has made threatening comments about doing some damage to her. Honestly I do not now why you would want to get involved in that.

£20 a week for a £5000 debt? No chance!
I would ask for a significant down payment, at least £2000 then accept £20 a week for the remainder of the debt

Accept the offer and keep an account of payments in a separate account. Be very clear that payment must be made weekly on the same day each week and if there are any missed payments you will continue with legal action. She will start missing paayments fairly quickly. If you reject the offer out of hand it doesn't look good later in court.

I would reject the £20 a week without a significant payment upfront. I don't think the court would see it as unreasonable by you given the sums involved. I would also keep trying to locate her as you have been doing- this is clearly getting her attention so may push her into a better settlement.

@TinchyP ime most debtors of this type don't have any capital . . .