Penrhyn Bay man says debts led twid to suicide

Jan 15 2009 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

THE twin brother of a businessman who committed suicide after plunging into debt has reported four finance companies to the Financial Ombudsman for lending him money he couldn’t afford to repay.

Accountant Garrad Musgrove of Penrhyn Bay says feels he owes it to his brother Darrel to take the money lenders to task.

Darrel, 37, committed suicide last July after his Craig-y-Don taxi firm Daz’ll Drive You ran into financial difficulties and he faced ruin.

“It was the massive amount of debt he was struggling with which led to Darrel’s death. As an accountant I find it incredible that within two weeks he was able to obtain £100,000 of credit from four different finance companies to buy cars even though he couldn’t offer any security,” said Garrad.

“If an employed person tries to obtain that amount of credit they have to produce proof of income, but that doesn’t apply to someone like Darrel who was self-employed. I believe the finance companies acted irresponsibly and that is what I want the Ombudsman to investigate.

“This has been preying on my mind and I need to do this for my own peace of mind.”

He lodged his complaint with the Ombudsman last week, but was told there will be a delay in investigating it because of Christmas and New Year.

“I will be contacting them to keep track of what is going on. If the Ombudsman feels there has been no wrongdoing by the finance companies I will accept that, but I can’t help feeling the finance companies were wrong in doing what they did,” he said.

Meanwhile, a car treasure hunt in aid of the Darrel Alan Musgrove Memorial Fund has been organised by family friend Richard Evans. It will start at Rhos-on-Sea Golf Club at 4pm on February 21 and there will be a quiz, raffle, buffet and disco afterwards at Bodafon Farm Park in Craig-y-Don.

“Richard has written to around 430 companies requesting donations towards the raffle and has received a great response so far,” said Garrad.