UK News 29-10-2004 Couple Let Off £384,000 Loan who: Homeowners Tony and Michelle Meadows what: Have "extortionate" home loan wiped out by judge where: County Court, LIVERPOOL when: Yesterday snippet: "A couple who saw a £5,750 loan multiply by 64 times its original value have had the debt wiped out by a judge, who said they were the victims of extortionate interest rates," reports the ITV news website. Tony and Michelle Meadows "borrowed the money 15 years ago to install central heating at their home in Southport, Merseyside, and were persuaded to borrow more to pay off their mortgage arrears," says The Independent. After falling behind with payments, they were compelled to pay an APR of 34.9% on the arrears as well as on the repayments "Where the rate concerned is as high as 34.9%, it seems to me that the combination of factors is so potentially exorbitant that it is grossly so and does grossly contravene the ordinary principles of fair dealing," said Judge Nigel Howarth at the end of the hearing at Liverpool county court, quoted in today`s Guardian. "This is one of the few credit bargains which is extortionate." "It has been incredibly hard, but we brought the fight to them and we won," says Mr Meadows in The Guardian. "We have got two girls and the worst thing for me was watching them go without things like holidays. It wasn`t a wanton spending spree we went on back then, it was just something we had to do at the time. I would advise people thinking of taking a loan to read the small print very carefully." [... more]

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