Conned by a debt collection company

A question about : Conned by a debt collection company

Hello,

(Please move this if I've posted in the wrong place)

I am requesting advice on behalf of a friend as he is completely stumped as to what to do next.

He is in the building industry and did some work on a property; he did not get paid, to the tune of roughly 3K. In the end he took it to a small claims court and the judge awarded a CCJ against the customer - still, the customer failed to pay.

As the months passed my friend went back to his solicitor and his name is now on the deeds / land registry of the customers residential property until they pay up.

Still no payment.

A debt collection company approached my friend claiming that they could collect the debt on his behalf. He paid Ј960 being told that the customer would have to pay Ј500 of that back to him (it would be added to their debt). He handed over copies of the court orders and left them to it.

It has now come to his attention that the debt company he paid Ј960 to are con-artists and they are ignoring his calls.

Is there any way in which he can claim his Ј960 back and more importantly, how can he stop this debt collection company going to the customer and claiming, then keeping the money (if they haven't done so already)? To make matter worse, he paid them on a debit card.

Many thanks for your time, any advice is truly appreciated.

Best answers:

• If he won the court case why didn't he go to the best debt collection agent's in the UK, the bailiffs? They have the power a normal collection agency don't have. Its not to late he can still instruct the bailiffs to collect the debt (if they can pay that is) and it a fraction of the cost with the cost being added to the debt.
• He might be better getting someone else to do the money side of things.
  Giving out Ј3K of free credit and then falling for this.
  He obviously is not very good with money.