Ella* was pressured by her boyfriend to take out a bank loan of several thousand pounds in order to lend him money. He had a bad credit rating, so she borrowed the money for him on the condition that he covered the bank’s monthly instalments. A short while later, Ella and her boyfriend split up and he stopped paying her back, claiming that the money had been a gift.
Despite having text messages which proved the agreement between Ella and her ex-boyfriend, he still refused to pay. As Ella was unemployed, she could not afford to make the loan payments, which ate up 80% of her income. Unable to afford legal representation, Ella started court proceedings and then reached out to Advocate when the hearing was listed saying:
“I have no way of paying for legal help as I am on benefits and desperately need help to fight my case.”
Advocate connected Ella with barrister Jake Coleman from Hailsham Chambers. Jake helped Ella argue that the arrangement with her ex-boyfriend should be set aside on the grounds of undue influence (meaning that he had abused their relationship in order to obtain the money). The ex-boyfriend had argued in his defence that the loan was a gift, however, the judge struck his defence out. Jake therefore persuaded the judge that Ella was entitled to void the loan that she had made to her ex-boyfriend. She obtained an order for repayment of all of the money and interest so that she could, in turn, re-pay the bank and not have the debt hanging over her future.
Barrister Jake said:
“I was very happy to be able to assist Ella in these difficult circumstances. This will allow her to discharge her bank loan and to have a clean break from her ex-boyfriend.”