TONY HETHERINGTON: Calling the bailiffs again – but is ID confusion so harmless?

Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s top researcher, taking on readers’ corners, uncovering the truth that lies behind closed doors and delivering victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how you can contact him.

BC writes: I have received a demand letter from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd, acting on behalf of Right Choice Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Can you help me, please?

Since you last helped me with the same matter, nothing has changed, except that this letter has arrived.

I hope they stop bothering me.

Tony Hetherington replies: It has been almost exactly a year since your daughter contacted me on your behalf about almost the exact same problem. Then Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd (DCBL), based in Runcorn in Cheshire, had been hired by a parking company claiming to be owed £304. DCBL’s legal department had actually obtained a court ruling confirming the claim.

However, the legal proceedings and collection requirements were not for you. They were addressed to Damian Stroud, but they were all sent to your address. You didn’t know anyone with this name and he had never lived in your house, which had been your home for 40 years. You told DCBL that the car registration on the demand letters was not yours, but they kept falling through your letterbox.

You reported it to the police, but you got nowhere. You also contacted the DVLA, but this did not help either.

By the time your daughter contacted me, she was concerned that you – aged 82 – were so fearful of debt collectors arriving at your door that you were considering paying the £304 they demanded.

Worse still, the same company also sent demands for £349, which it claimed was owed to car insurance brokers.

I submitted all this to DCBL’s legal arm, but they did not provide any explanation or comment.

That’s why I contacted DCBL’s customer, the parking company. I have given them your full name, address, date of birth and confirmation of the number of years you have been on the local electoral register.

And I added that there was nothing in all the local records to show that anyone named Stroud ever lived at your address.

As a result, the parking company ordered DCBL to withdraw all its claims against your address.

And this brings us to what just happened. DCBL has written to Damian Stroud again at your address, this time demanding £274, which it claims is owed to Right Choice Insurance Brokers (RCIB) of Romford in Essex.

I have repeatedly asked DCBL to explain why they caused you such obvious distress after the same bad behavior a year ago, but they offered absolutely no apology or explanation. Honestly, I don’t think they care as long as they get paid.

RCIB was slightly better. After I gave them the necessary details, they told me, ‘This has been reviewed internally and it has been agreed that DCBL has closed their file. This should prevent Mr C from receiving further correspondence.’

On the other hand, RCIB claimed it had ‘acted in good faith’ and that Damian Stroud’s address – your address – was confirmed by documents such as his driver’s license, passport or household bills.

So I tracked down Damian Stroud. He’s decades younger than you, and he lives in an apartment not far from your house. His apartment number is the same as your house number and his postal code is two digits away from yours.

Has this all been an innocent but disturbing misunderstanding? Or does he really have papers that have his name on them, but your address? RCIB declined to say.

What I can say is that a check of the court records shows that there was a £304 debt judgment in his name last year, but at your address. This is the £304 demanded by the parking company that brought all this to light.

I invited Damian Stroud twice to explain, but he offered no explanation or comment.

I hope this does not lead to you being harassed again by the DCBL debt collectors, who have clearly failed to keep up with last year’s erroneous demands and threats.

Flags art owner on the run as scam stops

Scam art investment company Marks Art Limited has been compulsorily delisted and dissolved by Companies House.

The website is no longer live and the phone is not being answered, but police are still looking to get their hands on the owner, Mark Steven Smith.

The Mail on Sunday has spent the past year and a half investigating Marks Art and tracking down its criminal owner. We first raised the alarm in September 2023 when I visited the company’s so-called gallery in London but found no photos and no gallery. Smith then claimed the address was secret – ironically blaming it on London’s high crime rates.

Marks Art also misled buyers by using forged articles from the BBC and The Telegraph. The photos it sold were overpriced and marketed with worthless promises of profits at auctions that ultimately didn’t happen.

This evidence helped convince some banks and card companies to refund victims’ losses.

The final nail in the coffin for Marks Art was when I reported in May that I had traced Smith, not to a secret address in London, but to a hideout in Northern Cyprus, where Britain has no extradition treaty. He is on the run from a four-year prison sentence after leaving a woman seriously injured in a collision in Surrey.

His art fraud in Britain since his flight has been run by frontmen and sales agents, with him pulling the strings more than 2,000 miles away.

And now it’s over.

If you believe you have been a victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, personal answers cannot be given. Only send copies of original documents. Unfortunately, these cannot be returned.

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