A CAUTIONARY TALE - Trust me, it's not so easy to recover debt.

I probably shouldn't be publishing this. It is not an Educational IT piece, so you may want to stop reading now if that's what you are expecting. This post is a bit of unfinished business concerning some problems I had recovering money from a builder who took quite a lot of from me fraudulently. The issue is not entirely unconnected to my use of Linkedin. I initially created a Linkedin account to connect with Claire Sandbrook CEO of Shergroup. I was a client of Sherforce at the time which wasn’t working out so well for me. So I joined Linkedin in the hope that Claire would accept a friend request, which to my surprise, she did. This was at a time when I was desperate to explore any leverage I could find to relieve my crippling predicament and I made sure that I collected as many of Claire's connections as I could amongst my own connections in anticipation of a post such as this. Although I have managed to recover my life somewhat after what was a disaster for me, I am still nearly ￡25,000+ interest the worse-off for the experience which does, like it would for most people I guess, change my and my family's future. I still have not shaken the feeling of being let down by the civil law process.

Some years ago, my partner and I sold-up and bought a couple of acres of land with a derelict house and set-to building a new home for ourselves. My partner had not been well for some time and this dramatic change was a way of resetting our lives. I won’t go into the detail, but suffice to say we were defrauded by a rogue builder who ran away from the job leaving us with an incomplete house and taking over ￡23,000 with him. The next few years were very difficult for us as we had to finish the house and having mortgaged to the hilt, meant we spent ￡23,000 on credit cards finishing the job and correcting the many issues we had been left with. Much of the work I had to complete myself, not so easy when you are trying to earn a crust at the same time. The burden of this only ended when I retired prematurely from teaching and could access my lump sum, which was originally ringfenced to bring the mortgage to a manageable level when I retired at 65.

Despite the advice of a solicitor who, after a few letters to the builder and a bill of nearly ￡1,000, said we should not pursue a claim, I took the builder to court and successfully obtained a High Court writ for the full amount. Unsurprisingly the builder did not settle, forcing me to employ the services of a High Court Enforcement Officer to recover the money. Enter Claire Sandbrook and Sherforce.

Sherforce pursued the claim for a while but when it became evident that the builder was not going to settle they made a house call. We then had what we thought was a stroke of good luck. The builder’s prize possession was a motorboat, worth, according to Sherforce, ￡25,000. On the day of the HCEO’s visit, the boat was miraculously on a trailer on the builder’s drive. We could not believe our good fortune. But to our dismay we watched from a distance as Sherforce levied the boat and left with the boat still on the drive. I contacted Sherforce who told me that they did not have the capacity to store a boat.

I received notification the following day that the High Court had issued a Stay of Execution pending an application to Set Aside the Judgement. I went to the builder’s home and the boat was gone. I then went to the local Crown Court to find out what had happened. They told me that the builder had soon after the visit from Sherforce tried to submit an application to the court to Set Aside the Judgement. However the forms were incomplete and he did not pay the fee. I then went to the High Court where I spoke to the Master of the day. I told him that it seemed that the builder had been granted a Stay pending a current application to Set Aside the Judgement but this had not been submitted. He agreed that this seemed irregular and suggested that I go speak to the Clerk of the court that issued the Stay.

The Clerk said he remembered the builder’s visit of the previous day. Apparently, the builder had arrived at the court in an agitated state, with no paperwork, and demanded to see a judge. “…and the judge agreed to see him!” the clerk exclaimed. “Never seen anything like that before”. I asked if I might speak with the judge who could be seen through the window sat at the bench in an empty court, and was told not without an appointment. I pointed out that the builder didn’t have an appointment, but was firmly told that I needed one. I found a court reading room and spent the next two hours composing an application for a court hearing and submitted this to the Court office, with the appropriate fee.

Over the next few weeks the matter was transferred to my local Crown Court and eventually we had a date to address the matter properly. In the meantime I managed to find two former clients of the builder. One gave the builder a substantial deposit and never saw him again, another, a single parent, had to move into lodgings and send her daughter to live with her parents after the builder took ￡17,000 from her, removed the roof off her house and left, not to be seen again. Both ladies had started various proceedings against the builder and had uncovered other clients who had problems. We estimated that the builder had taken more than ￡70,000 from clients for work he never completed over the previous 18 months. The two former clients agreed to attend court with me to act as witnesses.

Prior to the hearing I received a copy of the builder’s evidence. The bundle contained altered quotes and agreement and accused me of not meeting the agreed staged payments as well as a fair smattering of character assassination.

In my ignorance of court proceedings I was concerned that it may not become apparent to the judge that many of the documents had been forged and that I might not have the opportunity or wits to defend myself properly against the builder's accusations. I had also discovered that the builder had just recently been successfully prosecuted for benefit fraud. So, I wrote to the Judge including a comparison with the original documents and pointing out his recent prosecution, and that I had discovered that although his paperwork said otherwise, he was not registered as a limited company. I suggested to the judge that there was good reason to treat the builder’s testimony with caution.

A few days before the hearing I had discovered where the builder had hidden his boat. I managed to talk a man in the fenced boat yard into letting me in to have a look and I photographed the boat. I informed Sherforce, but they would not act while the Stay was in place. The day before the hearing I wanted to know that the boat was still there. When my partner and I arrived at the creek boat yard, we saw the builder and his wife hitching the boat up to their BMW 4x4 (which had also not been seen for some while) and driving off. I managed to photograph them leaving the yard with the boat and tried to follow but lost them. The builder obviously did not want to take any chances with the hearing the following day.

When the hearing date came around we were disappointed to be told that the witnesses would not be allowed in chambers. However, there was some satisfaction to be had in watching the builder squirm awkwardly in his seat as the former clients smiled at him from across the small waiting area.

During the hearing the Judge asked the builder to confirm his recent prosecution for benefit fraud and challenged him about his company's status. She took pains to explain how serious she thought it was misleading clients in this way. However, there were some anomalies in my Particulars of Claim resulting from my inexperience that she felt needed addressing before she could award the whole of the claim. We ended the hearing with the Judge’s reiteration of how serious she thought the builder’s actions were (my reading at the time was that they were criminal), and she gave me 24 hours to find a professional to adjust my Particulars of Claim and told the builder to use the time to find a “very good” lawyer.

On leaving the court, the witnesses and I went to the police station opposite. If I had read the Judge’s comments correctly, then we should report a fraud crime, we thought. However, we never made it past the front desk and were told by the officer on desk duty that these were three separate issues, each of which was not a clear crime, and could not be investigated as a whole.

I went home and contacted the solicitor I had used earlier, I know no other. I asked for help in reworking the Particulars of Claim and that this needed to be done urgently. He said he could spend an hour on it that night and that would cost ￡180. However, he did not rework the document, just annotated it and I had to spend the next day giving it my best shot at correction. I was a little put-out when his bill arrived for ￡330, and even more shocked at how quickly he started legal action to recover the ￡330 when I pointed out that this was not what was agreed. I think it did not go down well when I suggested a lack of humility given that he had taken so much money off us previously to no ends for a case I had successfully prosecuted on my own. Probably not a good idea.

I resubmitted the Particulars of Claim and reinstated the action as suggested by the Judge, but the builder did not respond so I was awarded the full amount.

I continued to press Sherforce to act who seized his van which raised ￡800 or so. I even photographed the cars outside his house at regular intervals and sent the details to Sherforce, but we never found the boat and before long I was informed that the builder had declared himself bankrupt.

When I was contacted by the Insolvency Service asking about the builder’s debt to me, I made it very clear that I could not accept the builder being released from his debt while he was in possession of ￡25,000 motor boat and a very nice BMW 4x4, for which I provided them with the registration and some recent pictures of him using it from his wife’s Facebook site. I sent them copies of the Particulars of Claim and my notes to the Judge along with the Writ. I was told vehicle registration is not the same as ownership and I would have to provide other proof before they would investigate. It is very difficult to think of what that proof might be without asking the builder for a copy of the receipt! I was not able to delay the bankruptcy and was told that the builder would not be offering any settlement to me.

I contacted Intelligence Live and informed them that the builder had misrepresented his assets in his bankruptcy application. I received acknowledgement and was told that they would investigate but I would not be informed of the result. I wrote to them to explain how unsatisfactory that appeared from my perspective and if they did discover that he had undisclosed assets I was entitled to know. They wrote back to tell me that I would not be informed of the results of any investigation and that they would not respond to any further correspondence from me.

Somewhere around this time I was reminded about Claire Sandbrook by a Linked In post where she was extolling the virtues of her favourite TV HCEOs from “Can’t Pay? Take it Away!”, a programme I find very difficult to watch without swearing at the TV. Claire’s praise of her team is provocative to me I admit, given it was her HCEO that left the boat on the drive. I commented to the post something like “Would they recover a boat?”. Claire then messaged me asking if there was a problem and I related my story. She said that they had a new service of forensic investigation for bankruptcy and if I sent her the details she would have the builder investigated free of charge. I sent the details. I never heard from her again until we repeated the interaction some months later where she offered again to conduct a forensic investigation if I sent her details. I told her that I had already but resent them and never heard from her again.

In the meantime, frustrated at the response from the Insolvency Service and Intelligence Live I contacted my local Member of Parliament, Mr Stephen Metcalfe. We met and I explained my dissatisfaction with the HCEO and the Insolvency Service. He was sympathetic and offered to take the case to the Ministry of Justice but having not heard after a few months I contacted him again and was told that he had not had a response but would press for one. When I didn’t hear for a further few months I asked again for news, and was told again that he had not had a response but would press for one. I still wait to hear.

My partner and I often conclude that our builder is either charmed or on a witness protection programme. It’s either that or the builder is smarter than the legal system and can dance his way round it with impunity. Whatever the case, I noticed that before he was discharged the builder had laundered the boat by buying a newer model. So things seem to be working out for him one way or another.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I hope to achieve with this post apart from declaring myself as a victim. I've followed all the right processes, spoken to all the proper people yet this post remains the last pro-active and legal measure I can take. How far and how long would you be willing to push to recover ￡23,000? For me, after a tortuous 7 years that's it. I'm done!