New Debt Tracing System.

Debt firm offers cash to sneak on your friends

Debt collectors are offering cash rewards for "supergrasses" to shop friends and neighbours trying to avoid repayments.

Debt Catchers is urging people to inform on acquaintances - and even family members - by passing on their details.

It is targeting Brighton because of the high rate of people who move on after running up thousands of pounds on credit cards, overdrafts and unpaid utility bills.

The company terms them "gone aways" and wants people who know where they are to pass on the information.

Describing itself as an "aggressive company", Debt Catchers says it will pay 50 per cent of any fee it receives from companies it helps in recovering money for the information.

Director Paul Matthews is encouraging friends and neighbours to report people and claim their reward.

He said: "We are deliberately targeting Brighton to track these people down.

"We've found that when people discover their friends have walked away from thousands of pounds of debts, forcing prices up for the rest of us, they are happy to rat on them. Now they've got someone to give that information to."

Debt Catchers is so confident of a return it is blitzing parts of the city where it knows debtors used to live in the hope someone will spill the beans.

Mr Matthews told The Argus: "As a society we are more comfortable these days with reporting someone who has done something clearly wrong.

"The recent reported success of the Government's tax cheat helpline shows that.

"We hope that in the long term this will teach people to take more responsibility for the debt problems they have, not just run away from them."

Figures released in February this year show Sussex is a spendaholic county, with the level of bankruptcy and those taking out an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) on the increase.

There are now 7,000 bankrupts and 2,200 IVAs in Sussex. Despite record numbers of people facing up to their problems and dealing with them through such measures, many move on and leave their debt behind them, leaving a sizable market for Debt Catchers to operate in.

For advice on how to deal with debt, visit www.citizensadvice.org.uk For more information about Debt Catchers, visit www.debtcatchers.com.

For more information visit www.DebtCatchers.com

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