Sometime back in Feb I paid for a trip for a weekend of huskie sledding with a company calling itself "Husky Zermatt". I turn up at the agreed location but the guy never turned up, citing several reasons like the fact that he couldnt get the dogs on the cable car as it was too busy and then later claiming that he lost one of his dogs. Anyway, the guy agreed to refund me the money I had paid in full, plus to pay for the hotel for the night as we were effectively stranded in the middle of nowhere.

After multiple reminders and several months later I had still not been refunded so I started a betreibungsbegehren against the guy. They couldnt get hold of him at the address I had for him, and the police had to become involved. Eventually he showed up at the betreibungsamt and made an opposition of payment. So the next step i took was to file a case with the District court of Brig to overrule his objection.

Problem is that the district court of Brig has returned my claim saying that he is not registered at the address where he says he lives and so they cannot hear my case. The betreibungsamt were not clever enough to get his proper address when he walked in off the street to file the opposition of payment.

Does anyone know what I can do next? On an aside note, if he is not registered in Switzerland and yet he is running a business, is there a way I can get him into trouble for this. Can I for instance get him investigated on tax issues? Basically i want to make sure he hasnt gained in any way from this sort of scam so that noone else with lose money the same way I did. I noticed on a site that he is selling his dog trailer, so it would seem hard to imagine he can continue his business without one, so be careful before giving any money to this company "Husky Zermatt".

Update: I still never got any refund from this conman. I am still trying to think of ways I can get my money back. Does anyone know how I can get a website legally shut down? The conman is operating again, this time on a new eu site www.husky-event.eu. I urge you to avoid dealing with him in any form unless you want to lose money too.

I don't know if this helps or not, but it appears the phone number listed on the new website is in the Netherlands but is unlisted (reverse lookup didn't find it). The owner appears to have multiple emails through Yahoo, including huskyvalais, huskyzermatt, etc. Also appears he operates in Belgium and Netherlands in addition to CH - which would be why he's probably not registered.

There is also a short article I found on google about him and his partner being in trouble for abusing dogs by using them to pull a car (article here, in Dutch, but google translate gets the job done).

Wish you luck.

Have you tried dealing through Zermatt tourism? I doubt if they would be too happy having people abusing their town's tourism

http://www.zermatt.ch/en/

If you have evidence he is operating in Switzerland, go to the tax office where he is operating and show them your evidence.

That's terrible. What a disappointment that must have been. I hope you had a nice trip anyway.

Maybe Interpol? He seems to be perpetrating an international scam.

ETA: Ok, I just looked at the Interpol website... Maybe this is not for them. Too bad!! I hate that he could get away with this kind of thing.

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Next time I book any trip I will google the person first, as googling the guy brings up all sorts of articles about how he did the same thing to someone else as he did to me (they paid in full and he never showed up), and how he has been accused of animal cruelty several times.

Yes as you mentioned he seems to be operating in Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. His base now seems to be Groede, the Netherlands though.

I hate to let these kind of people get away with it. I tried to bring him to court in Brig but since he moved away from Switzerland they couldn't bring a case, as he was unable to be notified of the date for the court case in order to be able to defend himself.

It would be great to get his internet site www.husky-event.eu shutdown. At least in terms of my financial loss I get some satisfaction from seeing that he has been fined 40,000EUR for mistreatment, since it would be worse for me to see that a conman became rich.

Please, if you know anyone considering a husky trip in Belgium, Switzerland or the Netherlands make sure it is not this guy. His surname is Decaluwe and he sometimes calls himself Husky Zermatt and sometimes Husky Event.

I tried contacting the Zermatt tourism office, but they never responded. I dont think his advert is up on their page these days though. Can you believe that this guy even contacted my employer to claim that I was sending him threatening emails and bothering him. He said "this individual has been bothering us for some years now". What does he honestly expect if he rips people off. Should we just say oh well never mind and let him rip other people off too?

Another way to recognise this conman is that he uses the email huskyzermatt@yahoo.fr regardless of where he advertises.

We should inform the tax authorities when we have some concrete evidence.

One way to get evidence I guess is if someone other than myself (as he knows my name and email) poses as a customer interested in a husky sledding trip and finds out if he is willing to offer a trip in Switzerland. If he is then we can be pretty certain that he is still operating here, and could get him investigated.

Uhhhhhhhhhh gee !you got the money back finaly Oh you din`t :-)

EU citizens can work in CH for unto 90 days without a permit, an online registration is required for more than 8 days.........Thats all. I doubt there is much profit to tax in any case......

Friends from other countries have sometimes better leverages.

A google translated version of a recent article about the guy in question http://www.pzc.nl/regio/zeeuws-nieuw...oede-1.3312820 reads:

GROEDE - Former employees of Husky Event in Groede are very concerned about the health of the husky dogs. According to the staff - that wishes to remain anonymous - would the company that tours with the likes animals, husky dogs neglected and not treated.

"They are never elated and night in the stables locked. They have to sleep on a concrete floor. They urinate and defecate there too," said one of them. Also, injuries are not properly cared for and should be young and battered animals along on tour.

Owners Wouter and Mieke Decaluwé deny the allegations and say just that good care for their animals. Veterinarian Mark van de Vijver from IJzendijke was late August when the company has been to examine the dogs. According to him, the state of health when in order.

Husky Event received earlier this month a fine of forty thousand euros imposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. An agent of the animal police and an employee of the National Animal Protection Inspectorate found that the dogs of Husky Event under tough conditions had to work, which the animal was outraged.

Perhaps either of these two organizations would have a physical address for the owner and you could then send some sort of written communication.

The address of Husky Event is mentioned here

http://www.outspot.be/nl/product/Avo...hting-in-tipi-

It is Husky Event, Catsweg 6, 4503 PG Groede (Nederland)

I have informed the site about Mr Decaluwe and am hoping they will remove his advert in the next few days.

Update. I found a dutch debt collection company willing to work on my case. They have made contact with him, but he is saying that he does not owe me a refund because he was unable to contact me on the sunday after he finally found his missing dog. I have the necessary documentation to prove that he is lying and so the case continues. We will probably end up going to court, but in the Netherlands you can seek the original debt plus interest plus costs. So the more he tries to resist the more it is going to end up costing him, as I can only see one way that the court could decide, based on all the documentation I have in my favour.

Good luck and please let us know the outcome!

he is certainly offering to take your money for trips in CH, just not delivering on his promise. So your nifty plan wouldn't really do much good ... unless the person posing as a potential customer can lure him into appearing, or at least investing a significant amount of time and energy.

You didn't tell us how much money was involved but I would just say be careful that you don't allow your natural desire for justice to develop into an unhealthy obsession for revenge. Under some circumstances, it may be better just to write the lost money off and forget the sorry experience.

want to send me some cash and forget about it?