sunster

I don't expect much sympathy here, but I did something really stupid back when I was young and emigrated to the U.S. about ten years ago. I left some debt behind. As I recall, I owed about GBP 600 to British Telecom and GBP 700 to a TV rental agency. Now I am applying for naturalization and was wondering whether this has created a criminal record for me back in the UK.

This is causing me sleepless nights. If I have a criminal record because of this, I will be deported and separated from my wife and children, correct?

I know I was young and stupid when I did it, and given the chance, I would make sure that the debt was paid.

Please, please, if anybody can help me, I would really appreciate it.

Tamara Velez

Yes, you should pay your debts cause they will check your background credit and ensure that you were a good citizen that you pay your taxes in that country. That's part of doing your naturalization. But if you are already in USA there is a huge possiblility that you won't get in trouble cause they suppose to check that before you coming to USA but in the long run, you will ended paying it.

sunster

When I left the UK, my payments were current so nothing would have shown up then. My worry is that I might have got a criminal record in my absence. I'm now afraid that it's too late to do anything about it.

Tamara Velez

In every country that follows up loan default, definately it will show criminal record for non compliance in making payments. That is logical. God Luck and take care. And pray to God that everything will be resolve.

Tamara Velez

If you are tormented about this situation. I will advise you to get legal advise in regarding to this presenting problem.

Paul

errr, no. Worst case is you would have had a county court judgment filed against you. That is NOT a criminal record.

Given the amounts and the fact that neither creditors were banks, they may not even have bothered to file a judgment. Banks are a little more aggressive in their attempts for recovery, but in your case, there's a good chance you have nothing to worry about.

To see if you have any CCJ's, you can easily get a copy of your credit report. It only costs £1. Unfortunately I can't remember where you actually get it from. A quick search with Google should reveal where though.

sunster

Wow! That's a big, big relief. I'm not too concerned about whether there are any CCJs against me in the UK, given that I have a perfect credit record since I've been here in the U.S. The INS can run all the credit checks they want in the States, because I've never even had a bounced check here. You've just made my day. Thank you and Happy New Year.

shaggy

Hi Sunster. It's impossible to obtain a criminal record through debt in the UK, unless you owe money to the government or have obtained credit through deception. Since neither appears to be the case here, you should be okay. Lenders tend to weigh the costs of taking legal action against that of simply writing off the debt---of course, if you owed thousands of pounds, that would be another matter. There are rare cases where large debts have been prosecuted under the Theft Act, but these are extremely rare and usually only for fraud, unpaid taxes or very large amounts of money. Banks and credit card companies are most aggressive of all, but it is even very rare for them to prosecute a case in this manner.

As a previous poster said, the worst case is that you might have some CCJs against you, which would make it almost impossible for you to obtain credit in the UK in the future. But if the amounts are low enough, they may not even have gone that far.

But if I were you, I would pay off the debt anyway. Contact the rental agency (wasn't Radio Rentals, by any chance, was it?) and see how much they want to settle the account. They will probably be delighted to hear from you, since they have likely written you off as "gone away". At least settlement will result in the CCJ (if there is one) being labeled as "Settled" on your credit record, which means that it will disappear after six years.

I also briefly toyed with the idea of doing a "Ronnie Biggs" on my debts when I came over to the States (I'm sure many people have), but I couldn't live with the idea that it might someday return to bite me on the ass. Besides, I don't like the idea that defaulters cause other customers to pay higher fees for loans and credit. So I arranged to continue payments from Stateside, and everything was fine.

Paying off the debt won't eliminate a criminal record, because you almost certainly don't have one---but it will let you sleep more soundly at night.

NorthSouth

Tamara - your response to this post is utter nonsense with no foundation.

Sunster - default notices and CCJs for non-payment of credit extended to you are NOT criminal offences. They are civil offences and are tried in county courts, the most that happens is you get a CCJ by your name and you will find it difficult to obtain credit in future until it is removed from your file.
The only non-payment that are criminally tried (ie by Magistrates) are those against the government and these are generally non-payments of taxes and then government issued penalties such as parking tickets, speeding fines for which you can be arrested, detained and put infront of magistrates.