Sorry to drag this topic up again but as some of you know, I was recently suckered by a property scam, and lost a lot of money (and more importantly, had a cherished dream of living on my own patch of countryside shattered).
I reported the guy to the police, but nothing has arisen from that angle so far (and judging by all my previous experiences with the Irish guards, nothing will arise either, I'm afraid).
However, a friend of mine in a certain civil service job has tracked the guy down. I have access to his last known address and his last known car reg; which may well still be his current ones. The problem is, I'm not supposed to know this information, and if I disclose it, my friend's job may well be jeopardised. I also don't believe the gardai would do much about it even if they had this information - I have had some very bad experiences with them in the past; they really don't seem interested in small-scale crimes like this - they already have what I now know are his actual car reg and bank details, and have so far done nothing.
A friend suggested a polite, registered letter to his address, acknowledging some 'crossed wires' and asking that my money be refunded through Western Union (the underlying message being, of course, 'I know where you live'). The guy doesn't know where I live, but he may well still have my phone number (though to be honest I doubt it; given that he seems to have discarded whatever SIM he was using).
This has been my preferred option so far - there is always the possibility that he's part of a gang, or even some IRA branch, which is a frightening prospect. All I want is my money back (a bonus would be the knowledge that he won't do it to other people, but that might be asking too much).
Any alternative ideas?
Send him a Tony Lee special.
Edit: Sorry, this is all a pretty shitty situation and I don't have any sensible suggestions.
Heh.
I do realise it's not an easy one and I'm not really expecting anyone to have the perfect solution - just posting it here on the offchance that someone else had a similar situation. No worries either way, though; ultimately it's my own problem and I have to decide what to do.
Any reason you can't take him to court sans police?
My advice would be to walk away unless you are sure you can handle any come back.
The Sunday World usually loves to rake this kind of muck - even more so if there's the possibility of a terror group angle. Might be worth seeing if they - or any other Irish tabloids - are interested.
Quote from: Old Tankie on 27 April, 2016, 02:35:03 PM
My advice would be to walk away unless you are sure you can handle any come back.
Without knowing anything about the guy, I'd advise the same.
There is the outside chance that it's some white collar schlob you could send your nephew around to intimidate, but probably more likely that he's a hardened scumbag.
Sorry to hear about the situation by the way, I know you were chuffed about the prospect of living there.
Yeah newspapers do sometimes give the cops a kick up the arse, as the bigger (easier) story is often "Police eat doughnuts, do feck all about easily solved case."
No 'popping round' or polite letters I would say though.
Quote from: Theblazeuk on 27 April, 2016, 03:28:38 PM
Yeah newspapers do sometimes give the cops a kick up the arse, as the bigger (easier) story is often "Police eat doughnuts, do feck all about easily solved case."
No 'popping round' or polite letters I would say though.
Thanks a million, all; appreciate your input. Certainly won't be popping round - he doesn't know what I look like and I want to keep it that way! As for the letter - well; I won't be doing it just yet. In any case he doesn't know where I live, or what I look like; and last time I was in touch with him he'd already forgotten my name and phone number.
In the meantime I've been to the Garda station again - the garda assigned to it is apparently 'away for a month' for training. I was told the sergeant would call me; I'll believe it when it happens. But at the moment it's all I've got, so fingers crossed.
I feel so angry every time I think about your situation JBC, but I'd echo the cautious tone of others. Try not to let it get under your skin any more than it has to: my wife was victim of a similar scam when she was in college, and it destroyed her ability to trust people for many years, and damaged her relationship with her father (from whom she borrowed a sizeable amount of money to 'buy' into a shared house that wasn't the conman's to sell) - in fact I know she still feels the effects 25 years on. Far worse than the crime itself.
Keep annoying the guards till they get off they're arse and do something or they'll never move on it.We unfortunately live in a country with a police force that's utterly useless and incredibly incompetent.have you contacted a solicitor to see were you stand legally.Have you any paperwork documents from this swindler.anything with a signature.His old number could be used against him if he was on a mobile contract.Failing that you could always kill the little shite and I'll be your alibi.
P.s. If you do off the Prick destroy this thread.
Nuke the site from orbit.
Quote from: Old Tankie on 27 April, 2016, 02:35:03 PM
My advice would be to walk away unless you are sure you can handle any come back.
Absolutely this.
Thanks again, all. I really appreciate all your kind words and your good advice - which seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of not getting involved personally and keeping on at the coppers to do something; which I will do despite my being in total agreement with Zenith666 about how utterly appalling they are at their jobs. And, as a few of you have also pointed out, there's also the newspaper option - or Joe Duffy's radio show; which is also terrible but has its uses.
Sorry to hear about your wife being ripped off, TB; I think she's had it far worse than me. I thought it would hit me harder; but other than a couple of days of crushing disappointment and heartbreak, I seem to be back to my old sort-of-cheerful self again. But hopefully Missus Back has managed to more or less repair things with her family and get back to a normal life again; it's a fucking horrible thing to do to a young woman just starting out in her adult life and I can see how it would scar her.
Strange
I would say the first thing to do is sit down and have a good think about what you want to do. Do you want your money back? Do you want revenge? Do you want to let it go?
You could forgive him (Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.Oscar Wilde) in a letter. "I understand that some people are so poor at business that they have to steal just to make ends meet. It's the nature of things. So what if you'll never be Alan Sugar or Richard Branson? You shouldn't let your inferiority to better businessmen get to you so much. Just know that you are not alone - I feel your inadequacy and I forgive you." Or something.
Or you could find out if he's subscribed to a trade organization or the local chamber of commerce or something like that and go after him that way. Does he go to church? Talk to his priest. Is he a Mason? Send a letter to the Lord High Badger (or whatever they call themselves) of the local lodge saying how disgraceful you now think Masons are if they allow one another to act like that. Put an ad in the local paper; "We are looking for more victims of Mr X to join our class action suit - call (cheap disposable mobile 'phone number) for details."
If you just want to get on his nerves, you have his address so... Sign him up for as much free shit as you can. Introductory offers, free samples, free estimates, quotations, test-drives - whatever you can think of. All this stuff goes on databases and his junk mail and junk calls will increase exponentially. If you want to spend some money, sign him up to a year's subscription to a suitable porn mag or hairdresser's mag or Guns 'n' Ammo or something weird. Something to play on his mind.
Of course, as you have his address you can do naughty things like order pizzas, taxis and meter readings - but I would not advise that as those kinds of things, and lots of other things like those kinds of things, might get him blacklisted and/or be illegal. Don't do anything illegal.
Or you could just leave it to the police, go and see a solicitor (many give free consultations), nip into the CAB or even (and I cannot believe I'm suggesting this) write to or visit your local M.P.
The world is your lobster.
Or you could just let it go.
Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 28 April, 2016, 02:49:24 PM
...Or you could find out if he's subscribed to a trade organization or the local chamber of commerce or something like that and go after him that way. Does he go to church? Talk to his priest. Is he a Mason? Send a letter to the Lord High Badger (or whatever they call themselves) of the local lodge saying how disgraceful you now think Masons are if they allow one another to act like that. Put an ad in the local paper; "We are looking for more victims of Mr X to join our class action suit - call (cheap disposable mobile 'phone number) for details."
If you just want to get on his nerves, you have his address so... Sign him up for as much free shit as you can. Introductory offers, free samples, free estimates, quotations, test-drives - whatever you can think of. All this stuff goes on databases and his junk mail and junk calls will increase exponentially. If you want to spend some money, sign him up to a year's subscription to a suitable porn mag or hairdresser's mag or Guns 'n' Ammo or something weird. Something to play on his mind.
Of course, as you have his address you can do naughty things like order pizzas, taxis and meter readings - but I would not advise that as those kinds of things, and lots of other things like those kinds of things, might get him blacklisted and/or be illegal. Don't do anything illegal.
I hear what you're saying Shark, and it all sounds like immense fun and certainly just deserts. However, the pursuit of vengeance can become an all consuming thing- especially if one is so far removed from seeing the results of said vengeance attempts that one has no clue whether it is even having any effect. It's possibly arguable that the pursuit of vengeance over an extended period is
at least as likely to lead down a path of mental health problems as the original event which triggered everything.
If you have absorbed the financial hit (broadly) and are over the intellectual hit, then you've rolled with one more of life's punches and can get on with the struggle of enjoying life as best you can.
Reasonableness seems to have ran its course in this sad affair. I would ramp it up a step with the Guards. Go to the Southern equivalent of an ombudsman; your local TD; a solicitor or The Sunday World. I am aware of the amount of 'inertia' prevalent in relation to the ability of the Garda, Police etc to get off their asses and do anything. They will move when pressurized by superior authority either political/Internal or Legal or by adverse publicity i.e. the Press.
I echo the others, don't personally approach this fucking rat under any circumstances. Regards Z
Report it to the police. And push it with them. Give his address, even. But do not get embroiled in it.
Vigilantism is, despite what comics might suggest, frowned upon by the law and not likely to end well.
Thanks, again, everyone; you're the best. I think I'll go with the majority vote here and keep going through legal channels (though it will be hard to give the polis his address when I'm not supposed to know it myself).
To be honest I'm not really interested in revenge - I just would like to see the situation put right and other people protected from this kind of thing. I'm kind of surprised at myself; when I was mugged in my 20s I had years of vengeance fantasies involving baseball bats, knives and what have you; in fact I still dream of the same thing happening now that I have some martial art skillz to my name. I don't know why, but I don't really have the same fantasies about this guy.
Anyway we'll see what happens; I need to keep pressing the police (they'd already forgotten my previous visit, unsurprisingly enough).
The legal way is the best way to go.
If you don't get anywhere with the police, there's always the commercial lien. (http://lien.fmotl.com/)
That ever work for anyone?
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 28 April, 2016, 11:21:24 PM
Thanks, again, everyone; you're the best. I think I'll go with the majority vote here and keep going through legal channels (though it will be hard to give the polis his address when I'm not supposed to know it myself).
He slipped up at some point and you wrote it down but thought it was a mistake when he gave you the fake one later. Or some such shite.
You don't have to reveal your sources.
Nice one - might just hand over the address! I think a sustained campaign of badgering the Old Bill is in order; till it's less hassle to do something about it than ignore it.
Aside from your own circumstances , Jayzus (which is bad enough) there's also the possibility that this character has diddled a lot of others out of their money, maybe causing them to lose homes and seeing their whole family out on the street!
Personally, I would confront this guy. No, it's not sensible but then neither is losing everything to a massive Cunt, and then doing nothing about it!
I really believe you won't get much joy from the Police in this matter.
All the best!
Cheers
Cheers, Kev. Sadly I think you're right about the police - but I'll keep trying before considering other options.
Slightly off-topic, but related.
Me a guy at work once, in prison. I read about why he was in there in local papers and saw it on local TV news. He and his brother were involved in an argument at a chip-shop. Some guy stepped in and got between the protagonists pulling them apart and getting the guy and his brother to leave the chip shop later. So the two of them followed him in a car from Stonehaven to Aberdeen, intercepted him at his front door and stabbed him in the head, neck and face 11 times.
The man got into his house and locked the door then collapsed in his kitchen, out of steam and running out of blood. His wife shouted down to ask if he was okay, assuming he'd fallen. He knew he was dying so he shouted up he was fine- he didn't want her to see him die. She went down anyway and he was rushed to hospital once she called. The guy who did it used to laugh about how 'it served him right' and he 'wouldn't mess with him again.
While I doubt the cops will be any help, if you're intent on confronting the guy somehow, only do so with your eyes wide open.
Fuckin' 'ell. Thanks, Kev, that's definitely food for thought; and has definitely made me think long and hard about any kind of confrontation.