‘Credit Card Killer’ and its Directors guilty of defrauding consumers

Richard Barraclough QC and Lee Bennett of 6 Pump Court have successfully prosecuted Momentum Network Limited trading as Credit Card Killer (CCK) and the company’s directors Basil and Amanda Rankine for fraud and breaches of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. They are to be sentenced at a later date.

The defendants were involved in a “debt sale” business described by the Office of Fair Trading as a “scam”. Consumers paid large sums of money to the defendants in the belief that they were transferring their obligation to pay their creditors under the terms of their loan or consumer credit agreements. The defendants gained in excess of £1.8M over a period of approximately 12 months. The Prosecution was instigated by the Illegal Money Lending Team of Birmingham City Council and was supported by the Office of Fair Trading. Evidence was called from a raft of consumers who had been defrauded and from various major banks. It is a landmark prosecution in this area of consumer protection law.