Cheers guys, one of the other executors has made an appointment with a solicitor.
He spoke to the credit agencies solicitors Phillips and Cohen yesterday and they have said that because the debts are so old they are having problems locating the original paperwork of when the debts were taken out etc.
The company I believe are called Capquest who the debts belong too.

We have gone down the solicitor route as we don't want anything coming back to bite us in a few months time.
Our theory is, if the solicitor only costs a few hundred quid to clear the £53000 debt then we will be well up and free from being chased for the money in the future.
I'll let you know how we get on.