Husband has stolen my identity

[SewMumSew]

Hi All,

Hoping someone with knowledge in this area can advise me

I've just discovered that my husband of 10 years has taken out various unsecured loans/credit cards in my name to the tune of £27,000. I had no knowledge of these debts and certainly didn't give my consent for any of it. I am currently on UC as not working. He appears to have been servicing these debts up till December 22 when the relationship with his business partner broke down and he left the company they were both directors of. I am in arrears with all of them as a result of this. I have asked him to leave and he is looking into his options. We are joint tenants of our Housing Association property. I have a 13 year old daughter from my first marriage who will obviously stay with me.

I have contacted all these creditors (4 in total) and they have started fraud investigations on the accounts. Do you think it'll be possible to get them written off since they were taken out fraudulently, or is my best option to go into a DRO or other debt solution?

Please be kind, I'm absolutely fucking heartbroken

Thanks

Good luck and ignore the poster who says he hasn’t committed fraud. It is both fraud and ID theft, it is taken seriously and should be easy to prove as long as financial transactions and account management (for the debts) match up with your version of events.

If it was, every other divorcing woman who increased the maximum on their joint credit card

There's no such thing as a joint credit card - one of you has the card/account, and one has a supplemental one.

When I split with ex, one of the first things I did was cancel his cards on my account for exactly this reason.

OP, someone mentioned that, because you are married, this would be joint debt anyway. This isn't the case everywhere. If you are in Scotland, debts aren't joint so please get advice. Good luck. This sounds a nightmare.

Amazing news! Good luck. I wish I had enough evidence to press charges against my ExH. He's now an accountant so free to dick about with anyone's bank accounts 🙈

Being married does NOT make this OP's debt.

People advising OP to negotiate with the loan companies are also wrong. She does not have any olbligation with regard to this money and should not give any hint of acknowledging otherwise.

And therein lies the problem with most legal systems. How do you prove (beyond reasonable doubt, so 90% or something ridiculous in criminal cases (law classes were so long ago and I studied housing law specifically) or on the balance of probabilities, 51%, in civil cases) that you didn’t do something?

And this is also why some innocent people do end up in prison as they don’t know that they need an alibi and because they are actually innocent, they don’t get a lawyer until the police have decided that yes, they are the guilty party!

FYI, and very important, the police are allowed to lie to you, so moral of the story, say nothing and ask for a lawyer, or if you are neurodiverse, ask for an advocate/appropriate adult and a lawyer!

No-one is saying OP should prosecute personally. She should report him to the police; the lenders may well have done so already, and it is up to them to decide whether to prosecute.. He has defrauded the lenders because it is not OP's debt and she can't be made to pay it back.

They aren't joint in England, either.

They most likely won't write it off without a crime reference number from the police.

They should definitely write it off after the investigation IME. They may require proof you haven't used the funds. He would have had to have forged your signature and everything.

Please note these investigations can take a longgggg time, hold tight and just know they haven't forgotten about you if you are waiting a month/2/6+ or more.

Awful thing to happen 💐

This happened too me too with an ex bf. Credit cards, around 20,000.
Firstly I had to contact the police with a crime number & let them investigate aswell.
I contacted all the banks used. (I only found out via my credit score online, i couldn't believe what I was seeing!)
It did eventually all get written off, took a couple of years though. I was also put on a fraud register thing so if I applied for any kind of card/loan I would have to go into extra detail to prove my identity.

Im so sorry this has happened to you, especially from your H. I think first things first you need to contact the police unfortunately as he has committed a crime and the banks may not see it in your favour if you don't.

Hope you're ok OP

I used to work for a bank OP so have some experience with fraud. In my experience it’s incredibly difficult to get it written off and won’t really be considered if you don’t report the crime to the police

Unfortunately all of this is based on an incorrect premise. It isn't down to OP to prove she's not complicit. The chances of her being charged with a criminal offence are, realistically, minuscule, not least because it is the prosecutors who would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was complicit. They would have to prove that she knew about the loan application and that she signed them, that she took out the account the money were paid into, and gave the bank the necessary signatures, money laundering information, etc etc.

If the loan companies try to pursue her in the civil courts, again she is entitled to put them to proof that it is her debt, so although the burden of proof is lower similar considerations apply.

I don’t know how this could have happened? Wouldn’t OP have received letters from the loan companies when the loans were taken out? Wouldn’t they have called her from time to time to discuss things? Wouldn’t she have seen the loan repayments coming out of her current account?

How inadequate are some banks’ identity checks that this could happen. It’s shocking, tbh.

I am an advocate for separate finances always. Must be one way to mitigate this sort of thing happening (I hope…).

Wishing you all the best of luck and a better life without that awful man in it! 🙂

Correct!

@SewMumSew do not attempt to negotiate this debt. Any attempts to do so will be seen as you undertaking responsibility and that will land you in a world of trouble.

Report it to the police and get a crime number.

Write to the companies concerned and advise them of the crime number. Do not phone as any calls will be recorded and you may inadvertently say something that sounds guilty.

Contact the HA re:tenancy and get him out, if you can. If the police arrest him and/or charge him, because it’s a crime against you, the HA should be willing to take his name off the tenancy.

Freeze any bank accounts you had prior to you finding out about this fraud, do not close them, as this could be seen as an admission of guilt.

Open a new account, in a different group, and do not tell anyone that may tell him. So if you’re with Lloyd’s, open a NatWest account, etc. (Midland bank was always very good and seemed ethical, in as much as a bank can be ethical and remain open and solvent, so if they’re still around, maybe open an account with them).

Tell the DWP that you are now single and ensure you’re claiming all that a single person is entitled to. (It used to be the DHSS that dealt with unemployment, I assume you have a UB40? And then I think DHSS changed to DWP, but I haven’t lived in the UK for some years and I haven’t claimed benefits, except child benefit and that was years ago, so you would know better what they’re called, but just make sure you get your entitlements because even if he refuses to leave, you can be legally separated for the purposes of claiming, whilst living in the same house).

You have been given some good sites to visit so make sure you get financial advice asap and get records of your credit file, as there may be debts that you don’t know about yet!

Having your identity stolen is very stressful, and it is so much worse when it’s someone who is supposed to look after you and nurture you. Please do make an appointment and go to see a counsellor. Please do not underestimate the toll that this kind of betrayal takes on someone, not only emotionally but mentally, and psychologically as well.

This is entirely untrue. Being married does NOT make it joint debt. Only entering into (freely) a joint credit or loan agreement with someone makes it a joint debt. An individual is not responsible for their spouses or partner’s debts accumulated before or after they get together or marry.

Well done for getting out OP. Hope things improve for you from now on.
Incidentally, I think you’ve had a name change fail.

Yes, I agree - don't see why being married would make a debt in his name a joint debt.........upping limits on joint credit cards a different matter but the OP said he took out loans in her name without her knowledge.

It's fraud. Call the police.

What on earth are you talking about? Increasing the limit on a JOINT credit card is not the same as forging someone’s identity and signature. And please stop the sexist implication that this is something all women do. 🙄

Your husband has also been receiving Universal Credit. That's another issue of fraud that you will need to prove you knew nothing about.

How did you verify income for your claim? Your husband's financial declaration is independent of yours, but I wonder how you didn't realise there was so much money floating around while you were on benefits and in social housing. Presumably he kept it separate from household, car, family?

You now have the task of assembling evidence that you didn't know what was going on. Make sure he doesn't destroy any paperwork or have access to your phone and messages.

Now would be a good time to start divorcing him.

What a horrible man to do this to you. I hope you manage to get it sorted out.

A question for anyone that might know about Claire's Law - would this kind of financial abuse be disclosed to a future partner if they asked if op reported it to the police, or is it just violence or harassment?

OP, if you google, there are many similar stories out there where the husband was charged with fraud, and no, she wasn’t liable for half the debt. People on here often share their opinion as if it’s fact, like the person claiming this isn’t fraud. I’d suggest reporting this to the police and finding a good solicitor with a lot of knowledge in this area.

I would try and get him to admit they are fraudulent by eg emailing or texting to say regarding the letters you've discovered about the loans he has set up in your name which you had no knowledge of, and that you obviously need to get this resolved and thus you need to know the total extent of his dishonesty and ask him if he can list all the loans he has set up in your name, as obviously they'll be needed to be contacted - and see if he admits.

So glad you're away from him now, OP.

This is an appalling thing for someone to do to anyone, but especially so to someone who they supposedly love.

Imo it's all too easy to take out credit in the name of someone you're in a relationship with, especially so now that applications are mostly done online without any signatures being required. And the accounts from others on this thread show that it's not uncommon.

Imo the banks etc should bear some responsibility for not doing more checks, even it's just ringing both parties on a joint application to check that they're aware.

I really hope that this is resolved without any impact on your finances, and well done for getting away from him.