Student disappears leaving housemates £4,000 short
A student from Halifax is pursuing legal action against a former housemate who has disappeared owing him and another housemate almost £4,000.
The sociology student has been uncontactable for all of the summer term and is suspected to have moved to Portugal or Canada. The student’s parents say they haven’t heard from their son for over two months, and were unaware that he had ever borrowed any money.
The student first borrowed £120 from his friend for a football tour, claiming problems with his credit card. The housemates then went skiing to Austria, during which time his friend leant him a further £2400 for the same reason.
The friend did not suspect anything as his housemate sent a text to his father asking him to transfer the money to his friend’s account, yet it was later discovered that he had provided the wrong details and the number he messaged rings straight to voicemail.
Following the holiday, the housemate then asked his friend to Helsinki, saying his parents had booked them flights there as a thank you. When his friend agreed his housemate then said that they had to go to Amsterdam first, so he could attend a football course.
They then caught the train to Amsterdam, where the friend paid for their train tickets and also leant him a further £300. The housemate then said he needed to fly home urgently to see his family.
The student therefore bought him a £336 British Airways flight to Manchester, as well as giving him money for the taxi to and from the airport. On his arrival in Britain the housemate called to assure him that they would still go to Helsinki, saying he had booked a flight for his friend from Vienna at eight o’clock that evening.
However, when his friend went to the airport to catch the flight, there was no record of one booked either in his name or his housemates, and he was unable to contact his housemate for the remainder of the Easter holidays.
On returning to York for the summer term his housemate did not return to their house in Halifax. The students’ last contact with him came when he saw him in Ziggy’s. Here he stated that he had £3,500 in cash on campus to give his friend the next morning, and that he was going to Portugal in the afternoon for a surfing competition.
It is believed he left the folowing morning at six o’clock, telling one of his female friends that he might not return until November if he did well in the competition. He has since been uncontactable.
Sinclair then contacted the housemates saying that their friends £300 deposit cheque had bounced, which they then paid for him in order not to lose the house.
They then found a new housemate and had to pay Sinclair a further £160 contract transfer fee.
The money from their holidays, the football tour, money paid to Sinclair, and other miscellaneous costs now amounts to almost £4,000. As both the housemate and his parents have failed to respond to letters sent to them via the University Welfare tutor, the housemates are now pursuing legal action to reclaim the money.
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Moral of the story – never lend any money to fellow students, you will only get your fingers burnt.
to be honest, who lends someone that amount of money? who has that much money to lend? what a mug.
Some people do have that much money Marcelo – they have wealth that goes beyond anything you will have seen in Chile, or throughout your playing days at both Lazio and Juventus.
But there is no possible way to say no to those golden locks
True moral of the story – Don’t leave your “female friend” when she still has ’round two’ left in her. He could have at least waited another hour!!
As a member of the football club I’d like to wish our surfing friend the best of luck! Harsh on those guys who he did over but he always seemed a genuinely good guy and he’ll be remembered very fondly by us. Hopefully he’ll return one day to pay his debts and enjoy Ziggy’s again.
He will NOT be seen in Ziggys having fun. In fact he will not be seen having fun again, once we get our hands on him.
to marcelo : you don’t understand what you’re talking about, the money was lent out of good faith, and yeah we couldn’t afford but we trusted him.
footballer : you were clearly also a victim of his ‘golden’ charm…gutted
‘a genuinely nice guy’?? i just find it funny how reading that story, and knowing the guy himself, you can even say that. You’ve clearly been just as ‘done over’ as we have by his charm.
Out of simple (and also morbid) curiosity, why has the cad’s name been withheld?
Miranda,
Both names have been withheld as publishing exact details could interfere with the legal action currently being initiated.
Despite all his faults and predicaments he left people in, I really doubt he did any of it maliciously.
His northern banter and playful antics will be missed greatly.
At first I thought this was quite hilarious, but then I think about it, and there’s something quite eerie about it. In a way, for some people, university throws money at you that you have never seen before. So this guy, who I do not know personally, seized the day, he kind of took the money and enjoyed his life. Touche to him I say. For, he could have been like the other suckers and gone to the library where everyone is using facebook anyway, gone to those deadbeat lectures where the professor speaks so quietly that the already sleepy/hungover students fall into deeper dreams… lived the mediocre student life. I kind of admire him.
He was a nice Fella.
You are nuts. He was a con man and evil.
Any man with £4k in his pocket can be my nice fella
He buggered off with my football stickers as well.
He took my Baxter.
Legal action to reclaim the money?
Good luck, but I wouldn’t expect anything more to come of it than a court judgement against his name and a bill from the solicitors.
It reads like the protagonist is criminally insane; helpless against his uncontemplated conclusion that consequences can ever be escaped.
Watch out for this characteristic lust for lying, and rescind your trust to the extent that you could even throw ‘em further.
Moral of the story – Sinclair are dicks
I think he’s got my pogs too.