Hi guys im new here ,
i signed up because im being threatened to be taken to a small claims court.
A long story short
1 or 2 years ago i met a guy on gumtree (that had bought a computer off me) and he had asked whether i could supply him with a large amount of computer components,
me being not being mature and silly i accepted this and we talked over email for a bit to confirm details.
After that he had transferred over £70k into my bank and what we agreed is that i give him a certain amount of computer components each week which i did for several months until the guy supplying me with the cheap components stole a large sum of cash from me which was so stupid of me. i was left with £25k left and £40k worth of components left to give him.
I got scared at this time
i lost communication with my customer and pretended it didn't exist.
at the time i was doing GCSEs and wanted to focus on the exams at the time.
after the exams i had gained enough confidence to contact him and explain what had happened
he agreed that i could just give the rest of his money back by paying £2.5k a week,
what i did was i put the money into crypto trading and i spent hours upon hours on the trading site and most cases only getting a couple hours sleep but i was making just enough for the £2.5k a week
i continued paying him off for a few months until my trading account got hacked and all my money was stolen
(i did file a police report to action fraud but nothing happened) and the website owners said they could not do anything.
The customer asked what had happened to the payments after i had not made that weeks payment i panicked and blocked his email address and all was good for 6 months im doing a-levels atm (physics,chemistry and computer science).
I was really enjoying life without the stress.
Recently i got an email from his brothers email stating that i had owed £12k and that i can pay it now or pay £14k in small claims court .
I am more than willing to pay this off and had no intention of taking his money but tbh i was scared out my mind.
the problem is i am a 17 full time student doing really hard a-levels that require my full time and i currently dont have a job and have like £30 in my bank.
i dont have many possessions as i had sold most of it to make my final £2.5k payment.
i have a average computer, an iphone 5c and a good pair of headphones .
I am just asking for what i should do in my position as i did some research and i read something about how you cant make a claim against a child and how you cant make a claim above £10k
is this true
if not how would i go about this as im not going to lie i have no clue on what to do.
I would greatly appreciate any advice with this.
Many thanks in advance.