Shaun, a self employed builder from Chesterfield took out a loan with Igroup a subsidiary company of GE Money for £5,000 in September 2000, but immediately found himself out of work through injury, and was unable to keep up his loan repayments. Upon returning to work 4 months later he repaid his arrears and carried on paying regularly for the remainder of the term. However GEmoney contacted Mr. Chapman 3 months before the loan was term was complete, to inform him that he would still owe them over £2,500 which was made up of unlawful penalty charges, and compound interest, which they had failed to inform him about.
Mr. Chapman refused to pay these charges and GEmoney gained an absolute possession order in May 2006.
Not accepting this Shaun fought back by filing his own small claim against GEmoney with Chesterfield County Court, on the basis that the charges were contrary to Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e), and therefore irrecoverable at common law
Up to present no Bank or other financial institution have successfully challenged this type of claim, and GEmoney are no exception; whilst not accepting the charges are unfair they have reconsidered their position by offering Mr. Chapman a final out of court settlement of writing off the charges in full, and releasing their charge to his property, on condition he withdraws his claim from the Courts.
Shaun says "This is a tremendous weight off my shoulders; the tactics that these companies get away with is despicable. Of course they won’t admit the charges are unlawful, yet the banks and other companies still refuse to step into a courtroom in order to prove their point for fear of setting a precedent. I feel sorry for other people in the same situation who do not have the resources or knowledge available to them, and just suffer at the hands of these financial organizations"
Mr. Chapman along with other campaigners have now taken it upon themselves to help others reclaim their charges from banks and other financial companies by setting up a free website www.consumercorner.co.uk where advice and help are at hand.
Mr. Chapman says "the website is aimed at helping people stand up for their rights as consumers and covers a wide variety of subjects, if it helps just a handful of people get justice then it will be worthwhile, the organizers of the website have collectively helped reclaim over £150,000 worth of charges already"
