www.iva.co.uk

Is it legal for someone to apply for an IVA in June 2008 and list a range of companies that they would like to be put on the list before they go out and spend that amount with that company eg. list that company with a debt management company on their IVA list 'before' actually going to purchase the items from a retail outlet in the following months?

Hello Jayne,

You would not be able to list any companies for an IVA if you had no debt with them, and you should certainly not take out debt with companies if you are intending spending and and then going for an IVA.

That is not what it is intended for.

Thinking about it, if you are going to do this, I reckon it could be classed as theft by deception, as you would be going out to buy things which you have no intention of fully paying for.

At the very least it would be debt avoidance as you would have no intention of paying the full amount back.

I agree with Jan, you just can't do this and the IVA wouldn't be accepted anyway so the debts would still have to be dealt with.

As well as theft - try fraud!

Good point Melanie. Can't believe anyone would even think of doing such a thing.

It is also worth pointing out that there are certain creditors who will NOT support an IVA if the debt has been incurred relatively recently.

Further if you openly suggest that you are considering doing such a thing and are subsequently made bankrupt ... you're almost certainly going to be up in Court!

I would agree with meliane, its fraud, becuase potential you could stack aload of debt up in months and put the cash under the bed, then become insolvent then go in to IVA, and potential of gained out of it, but then the experts and creditors, know that to be situation of debt it accours over a period of years not months

Thank you all for your replies.
I am one of the unfortunate 'retailers' that has been taken for a ride by a person who has done just this. A customer of ours has had goods to the value of £5000 from our company in July 2008. However it has now been bought to our attention that this person had put this debt on a IVA in June 2008. We have had a letter from a company (Bains & Ernst) offering us £5.00 for this debt which is insulting.
She has also done the same to two other local firms since, one being a designer clothing outlet for £1000 by doing exactly the same, bought goods, bounced cheque etc. in September, 2008. Once again she transferred this debt in June 2008. Surely this is fraud.
I have no sympathy for her whatsoever as she clearly knew what she was up to.
Does anyone have any ideas how we could go about removing our name from this IVA and has anybody got any ideas how we can even attempt to get this money back. She is a property owner if this makes a difference.

Jayne, if you have an iva approved in june 08 you are not supposed to obtain anymore credit without permission from your supervisor.

I would have thought this is now a case of fraud, as they knew they did not have the money to cover these amounts.

Wait for an expert to post, but I think what this person has done is discusting and sure i won't be alone in that view.

I have worde that a bit wrong, sorry if it sounds like I meant you jayne[:I]

I was trying to say that if a person has an iva approved in the June they should not still be running up credit in the July

It does sound like fraud to me....Jayne did your compnay get asked to vote at the IVA?

I'm sure if you contacted the IP involved something would be done.

Be interesting to see what happens.

xx

If this debt is aquired after the iva it can't be included within the iva. For someone to include a debt that hadn't actually occurred would be fraud. It would also mean the ip hasn't confirmed what they have been told and how could they notify a creditor that does not yet exist?
I would speak to a solicitor and the police. If the person has other debts there's a good chance you won't be able to recover all the money or goods though. Was a credit check done prior to allowing credit? This should have shown that an iva was in place.

No, we wern't asked to vote. Saying that on the information we have had through there is a list of all the people she owes money to. Us being no 5 on a list 8 in total, starting with the largest debt as no1 (Northern Rock!!!).[V]Total debts amounted to about £75,000.

You have grounds to appeal this on the basis of material irregularity which has the ability to bring the IVA to a conclusion. If this happens, you could then petition for her bankruptcy, and have a Trustee conduct a through investigation which could ultimately result in a prosecution.

Only you can decide if this is all worth it - and you may never see any of your money.