MY DEBT HELL… AND HOW TO AVOID IT
A head trauma left HGV driver Chris jobless and vulnerable to fraud. Now he relies on soup kitchens to survive
FOR Chris Brasil, that day in the job centre was much like any other. After five years without work, he went along most days to see if there were any jobs for him. The 56-yearold former Royal Mail postman and lorry driver was unable to work after he was knocked off his bicycle in 2014. He suffered a head trauma with life-changing consequences and was deemed unfit to use his HGV licence by the DVLA so could not return to his old job.
The accident fractured Chris’s hips, landing him in hospital for seven weeks. He also developed long-term health problems including partial deafness, depression, memory loss, epilepsy and deteriorating eyesight. Chris, who lives alone, became reliant on benefits to make ends meet.
But at least, he would tell himself, he wasn’t in debt – a position he desperately didn’t want to find himself in.
That is until last year when he was approached at the job centre by a man who promised him paid casual work driving for his fledgling removals business.
“I was desperate for work as I hadn’t worked for five years and wanted to do something,” says Chris. He had no idea his “employer” had just left prison.
Chris knuckled down and completed the drives, racking up huge expenses for diesel. When he asked when he would be paid, he was told not until he had helped the boss pay off bills and keep the business afloat.
“This man ran up £1,142 debt on my credit card when he realised he couldn’t get more work,” says Chris, who at the time kept one credit card for emergency use only.
“My card was maxed out, then he fraudulently applied for a second card in my name at his address, which he also maxed out.”
Chris also ended up paying his scammer’s mobile phone bill and a fee to a job web portal. His arrears rocketed to more than £3,000. Bailiffs began calling over a burgeoning debt from a £6 overdue Dartford tunnel fine.
Meanwhile, his thieving employer disappeared leaving Chris, who has no family or next-of-kin, distraught. “I couldn’t sleep, I’m highly anxious and also depressed,” he says. Now he relies on food banks and soup kitchens to survive.
The Daily Express is featuring his story to highlight today’s Time To Talk Day, which aims to help those whose mental health issues make them vulnerable to debt.
CHRIS may never have reached such a crisis point if he had been signed up to the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS), a new free service set up to protect people like him. It operates on a flag based system. Consumers classed as “vulnerable”, highlight their status by informing lenders they should not be offered credit. It can prevent scammers from stealing people’s details and setting up credit cards, loans and other financial products in their name through an alert to registered lenders.
The register can also help organisations develop a more sensitive approach towards vulnerable individuals. With Christmas credit card payments now due, it is estimated that one person will ring Citizens Advice for debt
advice every 10 seconds. VRS is trying to prevent consumers from getting into debt in the first place – and stay debt free.
The service is available to people in all situations from gamblers to older people being persistently targeted for charity donations, says VRS director Helen Lord, previously
a senior figure at credit reference agency Experian Plc.
She says: “Through many conversations with people, the big issue is typically that if you are a vulnerable person, you do not want to have 25 different organisations and tell them exactly the same story.We seeVRS as a