cfwake wrote: WWW
"On one level I cannot advocate it as it is illegal"
!!
Robbing cars is illegal too!
A trifle trite I feel.
Stealing a car is the theft of a good for which another person has paid to own. Morally and legally this is a stark injustice.
Going bankrupt deliberately after accepting freely offered credit is less stark.
The credit was extended purely with a view to extracting profit. In most developed cultures society places a level of responsibility on lenders not to lend recklessly. To do so is to drag the ignorant, unfortunate or naive into unmangeable indebtness from which they may never escape and which might result in family breakdown, crime and suicide.
To offer a 19 yr old a credit card with a £10k limit, an 'any purpose' £10k loan and a £2k overdraft is entirely common. Even if they are a student. On a crap course at a crap 'university'.
To push your credit a bit and borrow enough to pay for a modular CPL/IR is only a small step beyond normal.
One could take the view that the willing lenders are totally dispensing with any obligation to lend responsibly.
One could then take the view that the willing borrowers could dispense with their obligation to re-pay responsibly.
The two wrongs a fairly evenly balanced.
The law of course is written by the friends of the lenders and is unequivocal. Planned bankruptcy is illegal and the penalties are harsh and include lengthy prison terms.
In reality 99.9% of people will walk away scot free and there isn't a judge in the land who'd send a teenager to jail for fraudulent bankruptcy even if they privately thought they'd done it. Few judges or magistrates have much sympathy for the loan consolidation firms or the big name banks.
I welcome anybody expressing any opinion on this subject and I feel its open and full discussion is to the benefit of all. So wade in.
Cheers
WWW