WONGA EXCEED THEIR CREDIT LIMIT WITH NEWCASTLE UNITED Newcastle United sponsor Wonga, have been ordered to pay over £2.6m in compensation after a series of, unfair and misleading debt collection practices, the company pretending to write from fake law firms to threaten vulnerable people who were in arrears with legal action. Wonga even had the audacity to add extra charges to some customer accounts to cover these letters to be sent out, that they pretended came from these fake law firms. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) accused Wonga of, Exacerbating an already difficult situation, for those who were already struggling with debts. The threats from these fake law firms used to put customers under, great pressure, to make payments that they often couldnt afford. Wonga have now apologised for this disgraceful conduct which carried on for over two years (Oct 2008 to Nov 2010) and involved at least 45,000 customers. The interim CEO of Wonga, Tim Weller, said; Wed like to apologise unreservedly to anyone affected....the practice was unacceptable and we voluntarily ceased it nearly four years ago. That will be little consolation to those customers, including many Newcastle fans and residents of the north east, who having already being in a vulnerable position didnt need pushing even closer to to the edge with such distasteful practices. As part of their preparations for dealing with the fake law firm usage, it was also revealed that Wonga had discovered technical errors which led to around 200,000 customers overpaying Wonga. The entire legal loan shark/payday loan industry has been referred by the Office of Fair Trading for a full scale probe of its , deep rooted problems, with the full findings of that investigation to be published later in the year. In addition, it could now get an awful lot worse for the Newcastle United shirt sponsor, with it also reported that any potential criminal prosecution had been put to one side by City of London Police, to allow those wronged by Wonga to get their compensation as soon as possible. Now that the Financial Conduct Authoritys investigation is concluded, the police have said they, Will be reassessing whether a criminal investigation is now appropriate. There was mass opposition against the deal Newcastle United struck with Wonga, with many fans feeling the choice of sponsor went totally against the grain of the type of company their football club should be getting involved with. Many of those same fans and other residents of the north east are the people who have been overcharged and victims of Wongas dirty tricks campaign surrounding fake solicitors letters, With MPs amongst other raising the question, it is surely now the time that Mike Ashley must look again at this relationship between the Newcastle United and Wonga, is it really the kind of partnership that the football club should be continuing with?
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 07:01:10 +0000
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