A consumer whose credit file was blacklisted in a dispute over payments for a computer has won a 16 year legal battle following a Supreme Court ruling. Richard Durkin spent £250,000 on legal fees in a lengthy dispute concerning a credit agreement for a £1,500 laptop he bought from PC World. Durkin purchased the computer from PC World in Aberdeen in 1998 with a £50 deposit and a subsequent credit agreement with lender HFC Bank – part of HSBC – for around £1,500. He returned the computer shortly after because it did not have an internal modem and requested that the credit agreement be cancelled. But HFC said he had to keep making payments, and after he refused the bank issued a default notice leading to him being blacklisted for credit. Durkin initially won £116,000 from a Scottish court but appealed the size of the damages. Yesterday, the Supreme Court justices ruled that a bank had breached its duty of care and awarded him a payout of just £8,000......Read more here