Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s chief investigator. He battles the reader’s corner, reveals the truth that lies behind closed doors, and wins victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how to contact him.
Ms BI writes: I was in a very minor car accident in 2021 and my insurer, Privilege Insurance, advised they were looking into it.
In mid-2022, I received an email from lawyers acting on behalf of the other driver saying that Privilege had not paid and that I was being charged.
Privilege told me this was a mistake and they would sort it out so I didn’t have to contact the lawyers or deal with what happened next which was a County Court judgment against me for £3,177.
Privilege even paid me £750 as an apology, but now they say their own lawyers were unable to cancel the CCJ.
Shunt: But the reader ended up getting a court order
Tony Hetherington replies: It is one thing to advise you to ignore the other driver’s lawyers. This would have enabled Privilege and its own lawyers to handle the accident and any claims.
But it is quite another to advise you to ignore a County Court ruling, a legal ruling that the other driver’s lawyers would have requested.
Aside from being a legally enforceable debt, CCJs show up on a public record and stay there for years, impacting your credit and potentially barring you from getting a credit card or a mortgage.
The advice you received from Privilege was shockingly bad. Privilege itself admits that. It told you that the other driver’s claim was settled, so you shouldn’t do anything. Now it says this was “a fundamental mistake.” It even admits that the other driver’s lawyers warned Privilege about the lawsuit, but Privilege failed to warn his own lawyers. The well-known: ‘Our lack of urgency and overview is totally unacceptable.’
So where does this leave you? At 60 years old, you’ve never had a CCJ against you until now. Well, once it started to take the matter seriously, Privilege managed to keep the CCJ hidden from public records. It remained in effect, but without hurting your credit.
That’s the good news. The less good news is that Privilege has struggled to get the CCJ fully erased by getting the court to strike it down. Privilege’s lawyers tried to get the other party to agree to a joint approach to the court, but the other driver’s lawyers simply didn’t respond – presumably because they thought their job was done.
This left Privilege able to go back to court on his own. Two months ago it admitted that ‘this could take a very long time as the request has to go through the courts and there is no guarantee that the judgment will be removed as this is done at our discretion’.
This really wasn’t good enough, and I’m happy to report that after further efforts, Privilege has now persuaded the opposing lawyers to give their consent so that the court can quash the verdict. Privilege has submitted the necessary papers to the court and is awaiting the judge’s decision.
If you don’t hear soon that the court has wiped the slate clean, let me know. It may be time for Privilege to rethink whether the £750 is enough to make up for the damage it’s done.
Why was my £25,000 loan note delayed?
KN writes: In October 2019 I invested £25,000 in three year loan notes issued by Urban Village Cap 1 Limited.
My notes expired last October and I asked for my £25,000 to be refunded to me. I have sent three emails with no response.
I called the company’s business development manager, Mr. Yakoviev, but he did not answer. Can you help me get my money back?
High rate: Urban Village Group is a real estate development company
Tony Hetherington replies: You’ve invested in an offshoot of the Urban Village Group, a property development company based in Sutton Coldfield, and you’re earning eight percent interest annually without any problem.
Your loan letter was signed by the group’s chief financial officer, Peter Steer, so I asked him about his company’s failure to repay you. He immediately told me, “We have taken prompt action to resolve the issue and are pleased to report that it has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved.”
You now have your missing £25,000, but Steer refused to say why you weren’t refunded last October, or why his company didn’t respond to your emails and phone calls. He described this as a ‘mistake’, which is quite obvious, but would not provide a good explanation.
VAT mystery… at my place
Mrs MA writes: I am sending you a copy of a letter from HM Revenue & Customs, which was sent to my home but addressed to Mr Grzegorz Plata regarding VAT.
In 2013 I received a similar letter confirming his VAT registration, and informed HMRC that Mr Plata does not live here.
HMRC apologized in 2013 and confirmed that this error had been corrected, but it appears that this man is still using our address.
Not known at this address: Ms MA received a letter from HM Revenue & Customs, which was sent to her home but addressed to Mr Grzegorz Plata regarding VAT
Tony Hetherington replies: I’ve checked local records, such as the electoral register, as far back as I could, and there was no trace of the mysterious Mr. Plata at your address or anywhere near it.
I also checked the VAT number and found that it was still active and still registered at your home address. I asked officials at the Tax and Customs Administration’s headquarters to investigate.
They told me, ‘We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the customer receiving the wrong mail. We’ve corrected our data to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
I left it for a while and just checked the tax number one more time, and it now shows up in the tax records as no longer a valid number.
If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, 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, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.
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