Scots interactions with England long considered to be the Auld Enemy. England, eventually, took over Scotland and Scotland came under English rule with the Union of the Crowns in 1707. Scotland, however, retained, by agreement, her own legal system. This is often forgotten by the English, very many of whom, believe that English Law operates in Scotland. Many have learned, to their great cost, that this is not the case. The Civil Laws of Scotland and England are entirely different.
The Criminal Laws do overlap but have many differences. In Scotland, a person may only be held in custody for a maximum of 110 days, having appeared in Court and been remanded. We have a Procurator Fiscal, who decides and actually goes to trial, on behalf of the State, against individuals. The Police make a report to the Fiscal, who then decides, whether to go ahead with a case. We have a verdict of Not Proven. This means that not enough has been done to convince a Jury of complete innocence or guilty. It is a maybe yes, maybe no, verdict, but the case is still considered to have been lost by the State.Two witnessing officers are needed to have seen an offence committed prior to arrest. In England, only one is required, which, in my view, leads to all sorts of power mad cops, doing as they please.!!
We have a system of Sheriff's Officers as opposed to Bailiffs who collect in debts, or sell off goods to repay a debt from the proceeds of that sale. No English lawyer or Q.C., has a right of audience, in a Scottish Court. Should an English person or registered company wish to pursue a Scot for debt, it is very complicated, indeed. The English based person must instruct their Lawyer, who then must instruct a Scottish Lawyer, to take on the case. This becomes a very costly exercise. No English Court can issue a recovery of debt order for a person in Scotland.
Loans in Scotland must be witnessed, in ink, not biro!! Loan agreements, should be written in longhand and in ink. Typed ones, must have the words, adopted as holograph, written on them, in ink, by the borrower. This shows agreement, that the typed format, is accepted, as having been written.
Any one who defaults on a Credit Card, for instance, living in Scotland can have a long, long period of time to get back on their financial feet, again, before any serious action can be taken regarding recovery. Here is how it goes.
CC Company X must write to the customer to try to sort it all out. This can go back and forth for months. X then threatens Court action. Stupidly, they sometimes try to raise a small debt action in an English Court which when it eventually is ruled upon, is thrown out, because the debtor is living in Scotland. That has been more time and costs. X can now consult their Lawyers, who will then explain, that they must, in turn, consult a Lawyer in Scotland, to take the case, to a Scottish Court. Every letter back and forward, costs money, as do fees for both Lawyers and Court paperwork. If X cannot get the money owed, it has little chance of getting that money plus raising a separate action for fees with more fees on top to raise the second action.!!!
So they generally sell the debt to collectors, in England. The debt is sold for a percentage. So say, £650 was owed. Not worth taking to Court and therefore sold on. It may go for £65. X then has a loss on their books of £650 in one tax year which is an expense allowable. They then have an income of £65 in a subsequent tax year. all of the writing back and forward, generally, spreads over two tax years. A bad debt, for claim against taxation cannot be claimed in the tax year that the debt happen within. So X is now out of the picture and have lost the interest on the amount owed. They also lose the ability to use the sum owed as colataral for any loans. They have not physically put aside the £650 for your use. They allow you to charge bills for payment between you and a third party up to a total limit.
If the Credit Card is from a Bank, then this third party may deal with that same Bank. Money, very rarely physically changes hands. Even when a Bank may pay the third party it is paying with money made from thin air under Fractional bank Rules. If a Bank has £1 on deposit, it is then allowed to lend out £10. Nine of which it hopes to get in by future deposits. A bank is required to kept a percentage in cash. If deposits don't cover it then they must borrow to make up the shortfall. A lending bank will accept money owed as going to be paid and therefore an asset for borrowing purposes. so by selling on the debt of £650, then that some reduces the asset pot.
Some debt collectors also lend money too. There money owed or bought in is also an asset. It is always agreed that it will be paid unless proof otherwise turns up. So they sometimes buy debt of high value, with no chance of getting it in, for a very low price. They are graded as to the chances of recovery and sold accordingly. They then bump up their asset pool at a time of flooding, for instance, to lend out in an affected area. As long as they make the payments they are safe. The assets will never come in but there is always the legal chance!!!
Some firms do this as well. They may have a stack of unpaid invoices, prior to offloading them to an agency, they use them for loan purposes and then offload them, using the balance between money owed and what it sold for as a tax loss in following years. should they have insurance, then they claim on the policy. In times of huge bad debt, claims go up and other areas of insurance have to take part of the load in higher prices for people. These non money things are called negotiable instruments and are worth money, somewhere???!!!!!!
So, back to our story......
Collectors Y now owns the whole debt of £650 which they have bought for £65. They can then chase the debtor for payment of the full some. If they get it, then, they make a tidy profit of £585 for an outlay of £65. This is why they keep phoning and writing. However, if they, in their turn, get nowhere, they also have two choices. They can go the Court route or sell the debt to another agency. As they have paid £65 they, normally, try to sell, if anyone will take it off their hands, for £10, say. Now, they have an income/asset of £650 in one year and a loss of £65 in year 2 and an income of £10 in year three. During all of this time, the debtor, has not paid a penny!!! May have died or moved house. The mail just piles up!!
Now, most companies, insure for their losses. The cost of this insurance is a tax deductible expense and they can claim the money, which they have lost in the year following the loss. In our little scenario, a small agency at the end of the chain, either gets the whole £650 for an outlay of £10 of can go to Court or sell it or just forget it. should insurance companies remburse then that becomes an income in the year paid and tax, if need be is paid the year following the repayment. The debtor is then the winner and only has default notices on his records, kept as reference guides, for any future lenders. Hence the style, black listed, meaning don't allow credit, or very very small amounts. When an amount is satisfied the one who gets the money is supposed to tell the agency that the debt is satisfied. They rarely do. There is no legal requirement. So you may have got back on your financial feet, paid off all of your debts and can still get no credit!!! A person may apply for a copy of his/her records for a fee of under £5. You may then show letters of satisfaction, to the recording agents and get any or all, black marks removed.
A person is blacklisted at an address. By simply moving home or applying for credit from another address you name is shown to be clear at the secondary address. Nothing is tied to National Insurance numbers, for instance. The only requirements are, that the name, has been on the voters roll, for more than three years, is contactable by a working phone, which shows roots are set down, as does being married and having a family. Neither marriage certificate nor birth certificates are required. Many people just lie on forms. this is, of course, Fraud, in that, money was obtained by deception.
Even although a person is blacklisted, may even have been bankrupt, he/she may be accepted by a credit union, for loans, at lower than any Bank interest. Deposits are paid a high rate of interest which is paid gross. It is up to the taxpayer to declare it is unearned income.
However,in order to get round the voters roll criteria, a crook may pick a 'good' address, in a 'good' affluent area as a previous address, which can be entered on the application form, should one not have been at the current address for the required time. When telephoned, if at all, one may say that divorce is pending and that you have moved out.! Credit cards, normally follow.......
The more criminally minded may rent or buy a three/four/five bedroom house. Under rules governing multi occupancy, up to three people, may share a room and pay some rent. If a meal, normally, breakfast, is supplied, a higher weekly rent can be charged per person. So, in a 2 or 3 bedroom house there could be 12 people, legitimately, living there, providing 12 individual incomes. They are normally, Ghosts, only brought in for inspections. So I am sure that you can see where we go from here...............
A criminal can use these twelve names, to apply for Credit Cards, which could give £1,000 per card or more. The social security are paying about £70 per person (can't remember true figure, sure it's higher now) So that is a tidy £840 or more, per week paid 4 weekly. £3360. That pays the mortgage/rent and gives some beer money to the names. Say three Credit Cards which provide £36,000. or £80K a year!!! PER HOUSE.!!! Think about it!
3 is £250K 6 £500K and 9 is a million per year!!! The Cards are all defaulted on and the people have moved on to new unknown addresses. Unless the Social Security are informed, they just keep on paying. Hopefully the houses go up in value if owned, with the dangers of proceeds of crime laws, or the rent has always been paid!!! Oh and of course, there are 13 votes for that house too. It is an unchecked system and the payers are making up these enormous losses.
The new game in town is to carry out, stages, as before. Use the Credit Cards to buy Cannabis growing equipment. Fans, strong lighting, piping, trays, smell filters, pots, earth, the seeds and so on. Then sit back and have a crop every 6/8 weeks, as well as all of the other income. Renting of small farms, which have gone out of business, is becoming very popular. Must be the fresh air!!!! This may lead to stolen cars being stripped for containers loads. Scrap smelting of supermarket trolleys, copper wire, lead from roofs, etc etc.
A group of five or six can make a million, each, in this type of enterprise and often make much, more, should they change the drug manufacture to Ecstasy,or whatever and bring in cigarettes, tobacco and booze as well.
It is a crazy, crazy system with very little detail checking.
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