can a debt chase me after 4 years

[filmjunkie]

when i was a teenager 16/17 i started working, opened my own bank account, the norm, my mother who was blacklisted at the time asked if she could open one or two mail order catalogues in my name, in my stupidity i agreed. some time later it all seemed to be ok, until i started receiving letters from other catalogues i didn't recognise, it turned out my mother had opened a further 8 accounts with others. at the time i knew there was nothing i could do, she had already ordered with them and the accounts had to be settled, within the next year they had all been defaulted and passed to debt collection agents somewhere between 1999-2002, this obviously ruined my credit, but my mother has paid most of them off in the last few years,when i moved out 3 years ago there was a few left to pay, all still in my name, i tried applying for a job with barclays, when i asked equifax for a credit report i was amazed to see exactly what was defaulted, including 3 CCJ's and how much the agencies were still owed, my name was now worse than mud. only the other day 22/12/08, i received a letter from a debt collecton agency saying i still owed �967, a debt i thought was settled, now bear in mind i have received no correspondence from any agency in a number of years. i have been suscribing most of the year to experian online, they have reported nothing of any outstanding debts.
when i phoned the agency they said they had tried to send letters to my previous address and that the company they used to find me was equifax.
i guess my question would be, do i still have to pay this debt? even though none of them were my fault anyway?is there anyway i could change them to mothers name?even with two credit reporting agencies (experian/equifax) stating different things, could i have this debt written off?

[Rollo]

You may find this page helpful:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ihtmanual/IHTM2 8384.htm

[dzug]

It really boils down to whether your mother has defrauded the mail order companies or has defrauded you.

Given that you originally gave her permission, it might well be the latter. A possible getout (and I'm not certain of this) is that you were under 18 at the time (if so how did she get round this?).

I fear you are liable - even if you don't regard it as your fault.

Time limitation I fear won't help as you didn't notify them of your new address - even though you didn't know you had to.

But others may have different opinions. It does sound a messy situation.

[WoWo]

As mentioned by dzug there will be no time limitation as you failed to notify the companies of your change of address.

it's a little tricky because basically this is a case of identity theft, problem is your mother is the perpetrator, to get a successful resolution (other than paying the debts in full) you will have to drop your mother in it.