'The problem is the credit-reference agencies assume you're the problem'

Henri Cash reckons it took him hundreds of hours to sort out the problems that arose from his experience of identity theft. But that has been spread over 18 months and has been made especially frustrating because the credit reference agencies would not talk to him on the telephone.

"They insist that you do it all by post. It's a very, very tough system to get any change through because it's based on the idea that the information they have is correct, and that you are a problem," he said.

Even though the man responsible – named, coincidentally, Peter Cash – is now in prison, the problem lingers. If Mr Cash applies for any sort of credit, he has to go through a password system, a safeguard that he put in place to prevent further fraud.

But Mr Cash, a partner in an exhibitions company in West Sussex, at least had the satisfaction of seeing the person who had perpetrated the identity theft jailed in February for 15 months for a string of frauds on various people and financial institutions. That is unusual. Most perpetrators of such an offence are never caught.

The conman falsified the electoral register in Brighton and applied for a number of credit cards in the name of Henri Cash, after noting that his victim – a director in an exhibitions company in West Sussex – had a good credit rating.

By applying for credit cards in Henri Cash's name, and taking advantage of his good credit rating and a false electoral roll, he tricked the credit reference and card issuing companies into giving him thousands of pounds worth of credit, which his victim would be liable for. The innocent Mr Cash only discovered this when he was contacted by a couple who had had a car crash with a man who claimed to be Henri Cash – but whose number plate could not be verified. Then he received a call from a bank, asking about a "suspicious spending pattern" on a credit card in his name. The only snag was Mr Cash had never been in touch with the bank.

The fraudster had applied for credit from a dozen organisations, which the credit agencies had happily set against Henri Cash's credit reference – even though the name was sometimes misspelt "Henry".

That could have made Henri Cash liable for thousands of pounds if the fraudster had simply defaulted.

Worried, he phoned the police to alert them to the fraud. But he says they denied all knowledge of it. Only by raising the matter in the press did he get noticed. "My advice to anyone who suffers this would be to go to the press," he said. "CIFAS weren't very helpful, and I still think the problem is that the credit reference agencies assume that their information is correct. They should have a duty of care to make sure it really is."