Abbey - Microfiche/ using my £10 Data Protection Act claim for something else - is this LEGAL?

[emason]

Second post today apologies. Abbey have replied to my Subject Access Request with a letter that states the following:

"I would like to advise you that under a Data Protection Act Request, you will only receive the transactions that are currently held on our systems. These will be forwarded to you within 40 days, free of charge, under separate cover. Any earlier transactions have been archived onto mircofiche, which is not covered by the Data Protection Act. these archived transactions will not therefore be supplied to you under a Data Protection Act request and will not be subject to the 40-day ruling.

We can however supply details of the transactions held on the microfiche on payment of an administration fee of £10 for multiple monthly statements per account that have been archived.

It is clear from your request that you require the transactional information that is held on the microfiche records. In order to avoid any additional delays, we will therefore use the £10 that you have sent with your Data Protection Act request, as payment for the microfiche records that you need. If you do not want us to this, please call us on the above number."

They cashed my cheque the day I got the letter so I didn't have an opportunity to call to say that it was for my Data Protection Act claim. Can they legally do this - they are taking a cheque I paid them for one thing and pretending to do something else with it which I didn't ask them to do and will probably tell me they don't have to do my DPA claim because I have to pay them £10. Does anyone have any advice? I am intending to send the letter that AlanfromDerby has posted.

Thanks in advance

Ella

[MARTIN3030]

Alans letter is self explanatory in that it addresses the question you pose.

Go ahead and send it out.