Finding myself in something of a debt fighting lull as I await the Financial Ombudsman’s findings with regard to my complaint against HBOS, I have used the time to glean as much information as possible about HBOS's dealings to date. To my surprise, my HBOS Harassment page on face book has put me in contact with two other victims of Lloyds and HBOS skulduggery and I have been amazed to hear how much they too have suffered at the hands of this giant, too big to fail institution.
While greatly sympathising with their cases, I cannot pretend to have a full grasp of the detail. However, one thread of commonality runs throughout all. It appears no amount of communicating with HBOS or Lloyds has done anything to encourage these ivory towered bully-boys to either look objectively at what is being disputed nor embark on any remedial action for the sake of the individual.
It would seem HBOS has, for some time, had a reputation for steam rollering legal proceedings towards bankruptcy even when they are fully aware of people’s inability to pay. Reports revealing 8 out of 10 such cases should not ever have reached court in the first place do not appear to deter them and HBOS are equally happy to bring proceedings to court for debts which are in dispute. I understand from one lady I spoke to HBOS have attempted to repossess her home, through the courts, twenty two times. Her dispute involves the Reading branch of HBOS where there is an ongoing police investigation which has resulted in several arrests for fraud.
Having already been taken to court to enable HBOS to obtain a possession order with which they beat through a fire sale on my home, I have been told, on more than one occasion, by Merrils Ede, their appointed solicitors, they plan to start legal proceedings towards bankruptcy because I am unable to pay the £217,000 shortfall that the HBOS instructed fire sale created. Like so many other victims of HBOS out there, it seems to be of no relevance this shortfall is in dispute and I am penniless anyway. Baring in mind how much it costs to action these proceedings I did not, until recently even begin to understand the thinking behind court cases of this nature.
However, I am now wondering if the reasoning behind a course of action such as this is simply an attempt by the individuals within HBOS to avoid losing face. I believe its quite possible I, together with all the other victims of HBOS who have disputes, have become an embarrassing legacy which needs to be dispatched, like cannon fodder, through the courts and then buried under an epitaph of “ bad debtors” in the balance sheets. I can only assume dealing with an individual’s dispute or unrecoverable debts in this way is less embarrassing to those at HBOS who have had a part in our creation and perhaps it is for this reason we have been ear marked for legal persecution. I cannot think what other reason there could be behind blindly spending taxpayers and share-holders money on cases which are doomed from the start to reap no reward.
Antonio Horta Osorio may well have asked his executives to bring out their dead but it is my belief some of these very same people have in fact decided to bury us alive, on mass, in our trenches, without Antonio Horta Osorio ever knowing.
