He bought LAPTOP on plan and then dissapeared

[markthompson]

Hi everyone, i run a successful electrical goods store. Four months ago i sold a rather expensive laptop to a customer on a payment plan over 12 months. This guy had an australian accent but was able to produce a gas bill and a suitable debit card for the transaction. He said he has a 2 year working visa over here, so i thought it would be fine. Unfortunately he hasnt made a single payment and any attempts by me to contact him have been fruitless. The phone number and address he left appear to be legitimate because i rang the number he gave, but the people there said he left the UK and has gone back to Australia and they dont know where he lives there. I also contacted his bank, they confirmed the account is legitimate but that was all they could tell me because of privacy laws. This is incredibly frustrating, ive lost a £3000 laptop to this guy. Does anybody out there with any legal knowledge know what i can do about it? Any advice at all would be really welcome, PLEASE HELP!
Mark T

[bwglaw]

This could be a case of obtaining goods by deception and unfortunately you have to carry the risk in the circumstances. Do you actually have a credit licence to offer credit to those paying by instalments? It is indeed risky to offer such a plan to someone who is not a resident of the UK.

The only course of action available to you is to issue proceedings against the individual, obtain judgment and enforce it in Australia. Whether you will be successful in enforcing the judgment in Australia is another issue. Cost to pursue the debtor will be costly.

If you know how much the debtor has in the bank then after getting judgment here in the UK you can apply for a Third Party Order against the Bank here in the UK.

Pursuing criminal proceedings would be pointless for you because even if they do catch the person you are not necessarily going to get your money back. They will just prosecute but for such a 'small' matter they are not likely to extradite the debtor.

If you get a UK County Court judgment against the debtor then this will allow you to collect the debt virtually at any time and either in the UK or Australia.

[Dr Lunnon]

have you tried tracing him through a debt collection company,people can say someones not there on the phone.it will cost but if u get a result it'll be worth it.
kate

[SALGADO INVESTIGATIONS]

Maybe i can help establish if the person is indeed gona away from that address?