Conned by best mate!
Nadine, left, was ripping off her best mate
Thursday 3rd July 2008
Bleary-eyed after another sleepless night, I came down the stairs and my heart sank. I recognised the envelope lying on the mat immediately. It was yet another letter from the bailiffs. We're coming to your house on Wednesday evening, it read.
Flopping down onto the settee, I put my head in my hands. It was August 2007, and I'd been getting these letters for five months now. According to the debt collection agency, I'd been ordering stuff from catalogues and not paying for them. But it wasn't me!
I was a single mum, working with adults with disabilities, and careful with money. I'd had a catalogue for 10 years, and always paid up when the bill was due. But no matter how many times I called to explain, the people on the other end of the phone wouldn't believe me. They've heard it all before, I thought.
Then, one day when I was protesting, I was told the clothes being bought in my name were size 22.
'But I'm a size 10!' I yelled down the phone.
It didn't make a blind bit of difference to them. I stopped sleeping and could hardly eat with worry. Two stone dropped off me because I was permanently terrified the bailiffs would turn up at any minute. And now, I'd got another letter.
I rang the debt collection agency again, expecting to get nowhere.
'Does the word “Luckham” mean anything to you?' I was asked.
'It's the street I grew up on,' I replied.
'But have you ever used “Luckham” as a password?'
'No,' I said, baffled.
But then a name and a face popped into my head. No, it couldn't be…Could it?
I'd lived on Luckham Road in Bournemouth as a kid. I'd had loads of friends and Nadine Noble was my best mate of all.
'Coming out to play?' she'd ask after school.
Nadine was two years older than me, and as our birthdays were just two weeks apart, we'd never forgot each other's and always swapped presents.
When we'd both moved away from home, we'd stayed in touch. And I was chuffed to bits when she'd had a baby, Keiron, now 17, with her boyfriend, Kevin, and asked me to be godmother.
And when she and Kevin got married. I was a bridesmaid. Within two years, she'd separated from Kevin, and I'd split up from my boyfriend, so we'd got
a flat together. We'd had some really good times, but after six months, I decided to move to London.
'Take care, speak soon,' I'd said, hugging Nadine goodbye.
We'd chat on the phone every few weeks at first, but as our lives went in different directions, our friendship had fizzled out. We'd never argued. It was just one of those things.
But now, as soon as the man from the debt collection fraud team mentioned Luckham, I felt sick. She wouldn't, I thought. Then he asked another question.
'Do you know a woman called Nadine Vickridge?' he said.
'No, but I know a Nadine Noble,' I replied, heart pounding.
I started shaking. Could my friend really be doing this to me?
He gave me an address in Blandford, outside Bournemouth.
An hour later, I was on the way there with my good friend, Jaki Rutter, 38.
I was determined to get to the bottom of this. We were driving for about 30 minutes, before we found the house on an estate.
'This is it,' Jaki said, pulling the car up outside.
'Right,' I said, taking a deep breath. 'Let's get this sorted.'
I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so we went round the back. We got there just in time to see the door closing.
So there was someone in…
A neighbour a few doors down asked if she could help.
'I'm trying to find an old friend, Nadine,' I said.
'That's Nadine's house,' she confirmed. 'She's got a young son, about 17, I think.'
My godson. So she had done it. Shaking and in tears, I went back to sit in the car, while Jaki knocked on the door again.This time, a man answered.
'Is Nadine in?' she asked.
'Yes, but…' he began.
Just then, a door opened behind him and a large figure stepped out of the shadows. Nadine. She'd put on weight since I'd last seen her. She looked like
a size 22 to me…
'Jaki, get back in the car,' I called.
I'd seen all I needed to see. As she drove away, I called Bournemouth police on my mobile.
'I know who's been doing this to me,' I said.
Three weeks later, they were still building their case when Nadine handed herself in at the station and was arrested.
'She was very upset, but admitted everything,' the sergeant told me. 'She wanted you to know how very sorry she is.'
As she had no previous record and agreed to pay back all the debts, she was given a caution.
'Is that it?' I gasped.
I was gutted. I'd been sick with worry for months and months, and it looked to me like she'd only got her hand slapped. It took another two months for me to clear my bad credit ratings. During that time, I found out more about what had happened from the fraud team and the police. Nadine had ordered clothes and even a bed online. All she'd needed was my name and date of birth, which would have been etched on her memory since our childhood.
I was sure it wasn't malicious. She'd even tried to make some payments at first. She was just desperate for credit and probably thought I'd never find out.
But it's a warning to everyone — your identity can be stolen so easily, and it's frighteningly hard to clear your own name. Now, I shred everything and often check my credit rating with Experian and Equifax. You can never be too careful. If a friend can do something this awful to you, how far would a total stranger go?