3 ms·

well in the UK when you want to take out a loan, the bank is legally obliged to look at your ability to repay and not loan you the money if you don't appear to

well in the UK when you want to take out a loan, the bank is legally obliged to look at your ability to repay and not loan you the money if you don't appear to have the ability to repay. Home owners have collatoral, business have business plans, those are assessed by banks for ability to repay. If this guy had actually said to the bank "hey I want to borrow $2 million, I have no income and no collatoral" do you think they would have accepted the loan?

scotty79 10y ago
But he effectively asked, can I borrow for my next mortgage payment and the bank said "sure". And then he asked for more money and more. He didn't take 2 million $ loan. Just many smaller ones. Which all have been approved by the bank. Just not by any human at the bank.
- raesene6 10y ago
  And you don't think that's a sophistry? Let's be honest he knew full well the bank, if actually asked, would not have approved his borrowing, any reasonable person would. He took advantage of a mistake made by an automated system from the bank, there was no human going "gee the guy with no income wants another $1000 to add to his massive overdraft, sure why not".
  - scotty79 10y ago
    I can understand that many people don't give that much thought to money, banks, how they work, what they do and what they don't do. People go to bank to get a house. Then just make transfers for the amounts that bank tells them. I can see how a guy could just overdraw his account and wait for the bank to tell him to pay some of it back. Maybe he thougt that when the bank will request some money back he can always sell cars or celebriy memorabilia and make the ends meet. He didn't cocieve a plan to buy a helicopter or luxury yaht. He was just living little bit above his means for a while. Fraud is a bit strong name when you are just doing someting noone forbid you to do.
    - raesene6 10y ago
      Sorry but that's not what I read in that article, to quote "I went to strip clubs and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on girls, alcohol, cocaine and whatever else." that's not the actions of someone who just overdrew his account a bit, or is a bit bad with money.
      - scotty79 10y ago
        If you have money available and feel down that's imaginable thing to do. Even if that money doesn't come from savings. For me that doesn't look like a obvious part of some fraudulent masterplan concieved months earlier.

scotty79 10y ago

But he effectively asked, can I borrow for my next mortgage payment and the bank said "sure". And then he asked for more money and more. He didn't take 2 million $ loan. Just many smaller ones. Which all have been approved by the bank. Just not by any human at the bank.

raesene6 10y ago
And you don't think that's a sophistry? Let's be honest he knew full well the bank, if actually asked, would not have approved his borrowing, any reasonable person would. He took advantage of a mistake made by an automated system from the bank, there was no human going "gee the guy with no income wants another $1000 to add to his massive overdraft, sure why not".
- scotty79 10y ago
  I can understand that many people don't give that much thought to money, banks, how they work, what they do and what they don't do. People go to bank to get a house. Then just make transfers for the amounts that bank tells them. I can see how a guy could just overdraw his account and wait for the bank to tell him to pay some of it back. Maybe he thougt that when the bank will request some money back he can always sell cars or celebriy memorabilia and make the ends meet. He didn't cocieve a plan to buy a helicopter or luxury yaht. He was just living little bit above his means for a while. Fraud is a bit strong name when you are just doing someting noone forbid you to do.
  - raesene6 10y ago
    Sorry but that's not what I read in that article, to quote "I went to strip clubs and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on girls, alcohol, cocaine and whatever else." that's not the actions of someone who just overdrew his account a bit, or is a bit bad with money.
    - scotty79 10y ago
      If you have money available and feel down that's imaginable thing to do. Even if that money doesn't come from savings. For me that doesn't look like a obvious part of some fraudulent masterplan concieved months earlier.