Press Release  AG Campbell Blocks Avon Debt Collector From Operating In Massachusetts, Secures Over $50 Million In Debt Relief For Consumers

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today announced that her office entered into a consent judgement with debt collection and debt buying companies Judgment Acquisitions Unlimited, Champion Funding, Inc. and their owner, Andrew Metcalf (together “the Defendants”), resolving allegations that the Defendants engaged in unfair and deceptive debt collection practices under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, particularly by seizing consumers’ vehicles to coerce payment.  

The settlement prohibits the Defendants from buying, selling, transferring, assigning, or collecting on debts allegedly owed by Massachusetts consumers – effectively providing over 6,000 Massachusetts consumers with approximately $52 million in relief from alleged debts. The settlement also permanently bars the Defendants from seeking a debt collector license in Massachusetts and from engaging in any collection activity from or within the Commonwealth, even on debts allegedly owed by non-Massachusetts consumers.  

If the Defendants violate the settlement, or if it is revealed that they were not truthful in claiming an inability to pay, they are subject to a $650,000 suspended penalty to be paid to the Commonwealth.  

“As Massachusetts residents continue to face rising costs, they should not be subject to aggressive and unlawful debt collection practices like those Andrew Metcalf allegedly engaged in,” said AG Campbell. “Because of this settlement, thousands of families in the Commonwealth will be provided with debt relief and these predatory companies will never be allowed to operate in Massachusetts again.” 

Andrew Metcalf and his companies ran their debt buying and debt collection operation out of Avon, Massachusetts. The AGO alleges the Defendants used aggressive methods to collect the debts they claim to own. These collection methods included seizing consumers’ cars as a way to coerce payments from them – even when the consumer’s car was worth so little that it was exempt from seizure by law and was the consumer’s only way of getting to work. These seizures were not typical repossessions, where a lender takes possession of a vehicle if the consumer fails to pay their car loan. Rather, the cars seized by the Defendants were completely unrelated to any car loan the consumer may have had.   

In February 2024, the AGO sued the Defendants for violating state consumer protection laws and subsequently won two preliminary injunctions blocking the companies from engaging in harmful practices. This settlement resolves the AGO’s lawsuit against the Defendants, permanently bars the companies and Andrew Metcalf from operating a debt collection business in Massachusetts, and delivers essential debt relief for thousands of residents across the Commonwealth.  

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Colin Harnsgate and Jane Alexandra Sugarman, Senior Trial Counsel Megan Barriger, and Division Chief Yael Shavit, all of the AGO’s Consumer Protection Division, and Senior Investigator Anthony Crespi of the AGO’s Civil Investigations Division.    

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