Shirt pressed, shoes shined, but with a head hanging in shame, the surroundings were alien.

Having lived a life according to the law, he never imagined himself standing in a courtroom.

When companies collapsed all over the world, nightmare became a reality in Bermuda as law-abiding people found themselves unable to pay for goods or services obtained on credit.

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe told The Royal Gazette how a “huge range” of people end up in debt courts and how the face of debt had changed in the past ten years.

He said: “Prior to 2008, the types of people who were not paying were primarily those who had the ability to pay but just did not want to pay — the quintessential delinquent debtor.

“Then in 2008, the recession hit and we started to see many people who historically we had not seen coming to the courts before.

“Those would have been the persons who had never been to court, always paid their bills on time but, because of redundancies or reduced hours, found it extremely difficult to pay.”

Mr Wolffe added: “I knew things were bad in, let’s say 2009 or 2010, when the character of the person that came before me changed.

“I started seeing people with shirts and ties on, and suits, coming to court and you could see that they were embarrassed and humiliated.

“For them it was surreal that they were in court in front of a judge being told that they’ve got to pay money because that’s not their experience. I’ve seen many of them break down in tears because they’ve reached the zenith of their stress.”

Mr Wolffe admitted: “It can be heartbreaking. I think I can safely say that a lot of people are one paycheque away from being bankrupt.

“Their income does not meet their expenses or their liabilities far exceed their assets. There are a lot of people out there like that and I think the courts are responsive to that reality.”

He said there was a “regular flow” of non-traditional defendants until about 2016.

But Mr Wolffe added: “There’s still a residue because you still have people who are trying to catch up.”

He said that the courts were unlikely to impose the “ultimate consequence” of prison for people in those circumstances where payments had fallen behind.

Mr Wolffe added: “While things may have improved economically on a global scale and maybe things on Front Street have improved, people are still trying to catch up for the debts that were accrued five or six years ago.

“They’re paying on the bills, they’ve now got a job, they’re coming into court less frequently or not at all but they’re still paying off those debts.

“So they’re certainly not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.”