Assumedidentity

Firstly, I've posted this under a different username as I'd rather keep this issue private from my regular scoobynet posts. I'm not PSLewis or any of that gang though....

My father and I are mortgage advisors, who run a company along with one other guy, who I'll call Mr X. We joined up with Mr X, who actually used to work for my father, as at the time we did not have CeMap (FSA requirement to register as a standalone Mortgage Broker), and he did. We basically did our own thing, and submitted business through "his" company, however this meant that our payments had to go through his bank account before being forwarded on to us, and this is where the problem starts...

Unbeknown to us (and I mean that - we work from a different office so had no idea), he had been bending the rules for dirty clients, making up fake payslips etc, and as such, a number of his cases have led to repossessions.

This has led to a number of lenders now refusing business from the comapny, and they have made complaints against the company also. The complaints should not affect myself or my fathers future in the industry, as we have done nothing wrong, however have serious implications for Mr X. Mr X has now gone AWOL, and is uncontactable by phone, has stopped going to his office, and conveniently for him has just moved house so we now don't know where he stays. I'm presuming he is planning on closing the company down, but the issue is he owes us a lot of money.

He has been playing games recently over when cheques arrived and when payments were made, however I've spent the morning on the phone to find that several thousand pounds in fees for cases my father and I did have already been paid to him. So in my view he is stockpiling funds as he knows he is about to go out of business and clearly doesn't care that it's money stolen from us.

I'm at a loss as to what to do as being unexpectedly left thousands short will have dire consequences in a couple of weeks when the mortgages need paid etc.

So what I need to know now is, how do I go about retrieving the money from him, i.e. what's the next step from here?

DCI Gene Hunt

PSLewis has a gang............

Andy-C

Is the amount too big to take to the small claims court?

EVOLUTION

you wont be able to serve a notice on someone you cant contact, surely???

Assumedidentity

It just ducks under at the moment, however as each week passes by this figure will continue to increase. Would the small claims not be quite a drawn out affair?

It would be possible to find an address with some digging, I think. This has all come to a head today so I haven't had time to look into tracking him down just yet.

David Lock

You must have considered contacting the police by now? Or certainly a lawyer and probably your accountant. Are you able to contact any of the payers and find out where cheques were/are being sent if not to his old address (may be he has a re-direct service in place?).

Try and ignore the "I'll send me mates around to sort him" replies......

davegtt

Cant think of anything unless you can contact the guy, sorry I cant be of help, sounds a sticky situation to be in.

Just had a thought though, cant you go to his old house and see if somebody has moved in, theres a chance hes left a forwarding address for any mail that gets sent there etc.... Worth a try.

jjones

sorting a business arrangement to avoid getting qualifications FREE
asking for advice on scoobynet FREE
creating an alias for the purpose FREE

giving away your real identity by using your own photobucket account PRICELESS

davegtt

Brilliant

DCI Gene Hunt

From what I can gather:

He hasn't stolen from you, he just hasn't forwarded the fees or payments his company was laundering for you in order to be compliant with FSA requirements.

So it remains a case of you being owed monies, and to date not receiving any and also not being able to contact him (Mr X).... How long has Mr X been AWOL, is there a chance he's actually just moving house?

Sadly though this is a commercial issue rather than a criminal one, so your only route remains through the courts!

Try to find out where he is, surely someone in or from his office must know?

judgejules

1) Go to Toys-R-Us
2) Buy baseball bat
3) Find him
4) "Talk" to him

Wont get a penny if you cant get his address.

Jules

GC8

Id opt for the unofficial route if I were you. Do whatever it takes to find out where he will be and then pay whatever you need to pay to see that he returns the money that he owes.

Id delete that picture too; if you want to retain any notion of an assumed identity.

Simon

Karl 227

FPMSL

Assumedidentity

Yes, very clever. The arrangement wasn't to avoid getting the qualifications, which we now have - it was simply an easy solution at the time and I assure you completely legal and above board. This is neither here nor there, and certainly isn't anything to do with the issue I'm asking for help on. Kudos points to you for being a smart **** though - your days worth has been achieved and it's not even lunchtime

I think the term launder is possibly not the correct one to use, as the connotations cloud what was actually happening. We, essentially, were employees of Mr X, and as such he pays us our fees when they arrive. Whilst technically it may not be seen as stealing - I'm no better off than had I been robbed on the way to the bank

DCI Gene Hunt

I understand how pissedd off you must be, but to be honest you will need to demonstrate that if you were 'employees' of Mr X that you had a contract of employment (verbal or written) and that your fees or payments were clearly detailed thereon..... otherwise you would be agents of Mr X, which is something else altogether!

Your best bet at this moment in time is to track him down...... try contacting his contacts for new or updated telephone numbers for him.... but KEEP IT LOW KEY... as he may yet turn up and have a genuine reason for being AWOL!

BTW how long has he been gone.....?

Assumedidentity

I've just called his office and his secretary has turned up - I've sent her an e-mail detailing what is due and asking for some explanation as to what is happening, so I've been told she will call me back within the hour. She didn't sound happy though, and I was fobbed off at first with "I've got clients with me just now". She doesn't have clients....

He has been out of reach since Monday. This may not seem like a long time, however when we spoke to him he assured us money was getting paid to us on tuesday, as he knew we had large payments coming off this week.

I'm waiting on a call back from the solicitor who did the legals for his house move, so will soon have note of his new address. I don't want to entertain the notion of a physical confrontation, as if there's a legal or more rational route to go down first, I think that may be more productive.

DCI Gene Hunt

Here's hoping it will all turn out well in the end...... but be calm and relaxed about things until you've had you're money from him..... then it's up to you how you decide to proceed.........

KiwiGTI

Maybe she's had to go on the game.

You'll never get the money off him anyway, it'll cost you far more to even try to get someone behind the shield of a limited company. And if he hasn't paid you he probably won't have paid tax either and they'll come first.

3times

as employees I assume you were having tax & NI deducted at source.

If so it could be that he hasn't been paying the revenue so may be trying to fob you off so he can use your monies to pay them.

I am guessing you do not have your own FSA registration as you were conducting business through the company reg so cannot even go to the lenders/providers concerned to deal direct to claim commission/proc fees.

can't risk going to FSA either as they may suspend his licence, which buggers you up as well.

hope you can get it sorted as I am in a similar situation, albeit on a self employed basis, and the FSA reg is in the company name of which their is only one director, who is a very good friend but also knows if he ripped me off he would be conducting future business from a wheelchair!

GC8

You need to nip this in the bud; and a physical confrontation, although undesirable, is the best way to do this. This doesnt have to involve him getting hurt, in fact you need to be trying to avoid that: but he has to be sure that he will be if he doesnt meet his obligations to you... When the money leaves his pocket/account you have little chance of recovering it.

EddScott

Can only think of going down the route of getting a forwarding address.

I work in the same industry and I find it staggering that the guy you were working with was fiddling pay slips - granted you didn't know but as and when you do join another practice, you will have to tell them and it won't look good. However that doesn't really help you now.

Were you only authorised to advise on mortgages? What does (if you have one) your network say about it all?

KiwiGTI

Isn't that the only way half the population can obtain mortgages these days? (As well as the others that overcommit themselves)

eg:
http://www.replacement-payslips.co.uk/

DCI Gene Hunt

A friend of mine (self employed) wanted a mortgage and her broker 'advised' her to download fake payslips off the internet.... she did, passed them on and got her mortgage no questions asked!

Seems common practice............. although I don't agree with it myself

EXSCOOBY

hi pete your chum mr blair is a plucky chap isnt he?

DCI Gene Hunt

Would Pete say... **** off you simpleton and get a ****ing life as I'm bored people think I'm ****ing PSL..... it's old you **** now get a new punch line you ****ing spastic ****........

Probably not eh?.............

EddScott

Thank god we don't do that many!

Any adviser caught doing that here would be kicked out and reported. As for fake slips theres two issues - 1 the bank statements wouldn't match and 2 you'd be able to work out in the interview if they were trying to blag you.

Cheers for the warning though re that website.

Funkii Munkii

Two words, Naivety and Greed

jods

Two more words : ****, Elbow