Bankruptcy is no longer the soft option as the Insolvency Service gets tough. Strangely, that's not true for some celebrities
The new get-tough attitude at the Insolvency Service will appeal to many who feel bankruptcy has become a soft-touch option. From now on individuals whose recklessness has left them unable to pay their bills won't be able to enjoy spa days out, expensive gym memberships or drinks in the golf club. They will be strictly limited to pocket money only ? �10 a month ? with any other surplus income they have going back to their creditors.
Unless, it seems, you are Kerry Katona. We don't normally find ourselves sharing much common ground with the readers of the Sunday People on Guardian Money. Nor do we usually care what "celebrities" such as Katona are up to. But the fact she has moved into a Surrey mansion allegedly worth �3m, replete with indoor pool, gym and cinema, has understandably left readers of the red-tops fuming. You see, Katona, despite a career advertising Iceland's tasty fare, is a bankrupt.
She was tipped into bankruptcy by an �82,000 tax bill two years ago, and is yet to be discharged. Maybe she saw herself as a low rent Leona Helmsley, the New York socialite who is famously quoted as saying: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes ?"
How is it, the readers of the Sunday People ask, that the likes of Katona can continue to enjoy a champagne lifestyle while they still, presumably, have sizeable unpaid debts?
"The system is wrong when a high-profile debtor can give a two finger salute to pursuers," said one People reader from Stockton, Teesside.
It's a fair question, and one my colleague Rupert Jones has tried to put to "her people" (aka Can Associates) ? but despite many phone calls and emails we have had zero response.
In modern Britain there appears to be one rule for us (tax rises, job cuts, lousy pensions) and one rule for the Kerry Katonas of this world. Let them eat cake, said Marie Antoinette to the revolting masses. I suppose for Katona it is let them eat Iceland prawn rings.
? Brits are getting wise to online banking fraudsters, according to figures last week which revealed that online banking, card and cheque fraud losses all fell in 2010. Financial Fraud Action UK ? the name under which banks and providers co-ordinate fraud prevention strategies ? says this shows industry initiatives are proving successful.
But if the sad story of Mike Milotte is anything to go by, there is a worrying new trend. It's when a company asks you to send money direct to its bank, giving you an account number and sort code to let you pay in. Normally it's because the "credit card machine is broken" or "you don't want to waste money on credit card charges". It feels safe, too, as you're just transferring the cash from your account to another big bank.
But once you send the money down the line, down goes your consumer protection ? readers may recall the "Rentmac" ("rent me any car") fiasco last Christmas, in which people were also conned into making bank transfers. If you haven't already received the goods or service, it's quite simple: never pay by this form of bank transfer for anything substantial.
Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie Erica Leerhsen Angela Marcello
No comments:
Post a Comment