WhiteVanMan Vs. Thames Credit Limited - They Lose!

[WhiteVanMan]

Right, I suppose I should have posted the goings-on I've had with these idiots from Bromley as things were developing but what the hell...

Having lived in the UK for nine years I recently moved back to Ireland. Not long after renewing my car insurance the letters and calls from Thames Credit began. They said they found me through "Public databases", which I can only take to mean that my insurance company here in Ireland feeds customer details to somebody in the UK...

The first letter from Thames Credit went as follows:

Originally Posted by Thames Credit Limited

05/07/07

Dear Sir,

Re: Agreement Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Outstanding Balance: £ xxx.xx

Your account was legally assigned to this Group of Companies some time ago and since the date of that assignment, we have been endeavouring to contact you.

By processing your account through Public databases it has been confirmed that Mr WhiteVanMan is living at the address shown on this letter.

It is therefore imperative that you contact us immediately to discuss your account. Our telephone number is clearly shown at the top of this letter, as are our working hours. Please ask to speak to one of our Negotiators, quoting your reference number.

If you believe you are not our customer, and have no connection with the above referenced account, please contact us as soon as possible on 0800 028 0773, so that we can amend our records.

Yours faithfully,

THAMES CREDIT LIMITED

So I write back with this:

Originally Posted by WhiteVanMan

Thames Credit Limited
Wells House
15-17 Elmfield Road
Bromley
Kent
BR1 1LT
United Kingdom

13 July 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

****** I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY*****

Re: Ref Number - XXXXXXX
Letter Ref - XXXXX
Agreement Number - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I refer to your letter dated 05/07/07 in which you allege I owe your group of companies the sum of £xxx.xx.

I wish to state that I am not at present, nor have ever been in the past, a customer of your group of companies.

I also wish to state that I have no connection with the above referenced account.

Please confirm IN WRITING at your earliest convenience that you have removed all of my personal details (name, address and any telephone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses or other information you hold on me) from your records. I also await your confirmation in writing that this matter is now closed, and that no further contact will be made concerning the above account after that last letter.

Yours Faithfully,

WhiteVanMan

I knew I couldn't get rid of them that easily, but I figured there was no point hitting them with a CCA request until they let me know what else they had on me.

In what must be a world record for delivery of a letter from Ireland to the UK, Thames Credit read and reply to my letter by 18/07/07 - looking for "additional information".

Originally Posted by Thames Credit Limited

18/07/07

Dear Sir,

Re: Agreement Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Outstanding Balance: £ xxx.xx

We write in reply to your previous letter.

We appreciate the comments you have raised and we are as anxious as you are to resolve this matter. In order that we may investigate this further and update our records accordingly, we would be grateful to receive some additional information from you.

Please phone us on our freephone number 0800 028 0773 to speak to our specialist department, as we need to ask you some questions to establish ownership of this account. We need to ascertain any previous addresses where you have resided that may be applicable to our enquiry.

As soon as we recieve the information you provide, the account will be investigated and if appropriate, your name removed from our database. It is therefore important that you contact us as soon as possible so that we may update our records. We are unable to amend our records without talking to you further.

We would like to reassure you that we want to resolve this matter with you and look forward to receiving your call.

Yours faithfully,

THAMES CREDIT LIMITED

Around this time I started receiving a lot of phone calls from a woman with a Northern Irish accent on a withheld number asking to speak to me regarding a "personal matter". They must keep a few different accents on staff in their call centre to get that false sense of security going... Anyway, no dice. There was no way I was getting into a phone conversation with these clowns.

The time for messing around was over. It was CCA time.

Originally Posted by WhiteVanMan

Thames Credit Limited
Wells House
15-17 Elmfield Road
Bromley
Kent
BR1 1LT
United Kingdom

24 July 2007

By Recorded Delivery

Dear Sir/Madam,

****** I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY*****

Re: Ref Number - XXXXXXX
Letter Ref - STD
Agreement Number - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I refer to your letter dated 18/07/07 in which you continue to allege I owe your group of companies the sum of £xxx.xx.

I have no intention of contacting your group of companies to volunteer personal information such as my previous addresses so you can “eliminate me from your enquiries”. As you are no doubt aware, it is not my responsibility to prove to you that you have contacted the wrong person with regard to this debt. On the contrary, it is your responsibility to prove to me that you have contacted the correct person with regard to this debt.

To this end, I request that you send me a true copy of the credit agreement referenced above before I will correspond further on this matter.

This is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request.

Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order, which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. This £1 payment must not to be used to reduce the balance on the debt in question.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

Also, since you are a Debt Collection Agency, I would also ask that you supply a signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment for the above referenced agreement. This is an obligation on your part, whether you are the original creditor or not.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the Office Of Fair Trading, the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Information Commissioner’s Office and Bromley Trading Standards.

In summary, I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS DEBT AND THEREFORE REQUIRE YOU TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS BY PROVIDING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION BEFORE I CORRESPOND FURTHER:

• A true signed copy of the original executed credit agreement.
• A statement of account.
• A signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued. Take note that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours Faithfully,

WhiteVanMan

What happened next?

Silence.

No reply. No phone calls. Nothing.

I checked the Track & Trace online - the letter had been signed for.

So I waited and waited until the 12 + 30 was up, and gave them another little while for good measure. Still nothing. So I write back again:

Originally Posted by WhiteVanMan

Thames Credit Limited
Wells House
15-17 Elmfield Road
Bromley
Kent
BR1 1LT
United Kingdom

04 October 2007

Dear Sir/Madam

****** I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY*****

Re: Ref Number - XXXXXXX
Letter Ref - LET1A
Agreement Number - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I refer to my previous letter sent to you by recorded delivery (tracking number RL77XXXX13IE) in which I made a formal request for a true copy of the alleged credit agreement as is my right under the provisions laid out by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77-78 ). Postal records show that this request was received by you on 3rd August 2007.

Since you have chosen to ignore my request, I wish to advise you that on 20th September 2007 you committed an offence as per Section 77(4)(b) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I also wish to advise you that, as per Section 77(4)(a) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 you are not now legally entitled to enforce the alleged agreement.

From this date onward, any further communication initiated by your group of companies in which you continue to allege I am in debt to your group of companies will be considered harassment (as per section 40(1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970), and that any attempt to telephone me will be considered harassment (as per section 127 of the Communications Act 2003).

As you are unable to supply any evidence that the alleged debt is mine, you have also put your group of companies in breach of the Data Protection Act by processing any data related to me.

Take note that I am giving you SEVEN DAYS from the date you receive this letter to confirm to me IN WRITING that:
• You are no longer processing any data related to me.
• You have removed any data related to me from databases maintained by Experian, Equifax and all other credit reference agencies.
• There will be no further communication regarding this alleged debt.

If you do not comply with my wishes in these regards, I intend to make formal complaints regarding your business conduct to the Office of Fair Trading, Bromley Trading Standards, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Yours Faithfully,

WhiteVanMan

Then today another letter with a Bromley postmark plops through the door. The nice people at Thames Credit Limited were kind enough to send me back my £1 postal order along with a letter:

Originally Posted by Thames Credit Limited

15/10/07

Dear Sir,

Agreement Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We write in reply to your recorded delivery letter received on 12th October 2007 regarding the above referenced account.

We have decided not to pursue the matter any further and have deleted the account from our database.

Our decision has been made from a commercial viewpoint only. There will be no further correspondence from us with regard to this matter.

We return your £1 postal order.

Yours faithfully,

THAMES CREDIT LIMITED

Result!

I'm now debating whether or not to report them to Bromley Trading Standards and the FOS anyway...

[alexteh]

I would. Also they don't say whether they've removed anything from your credit file.

[WhiteVanMan]

Good thinking - I forgot all about that.

I somehow doubt they've removed any defaults they put there, but we shall soon find out

[PriorityOne]

Nice one !!!

[WhiteVanMan]

Thanks PriorityOne.

I wouldn't have had a clue how to go about dealing with those a$$holes if it hadn't been for this site though.

The template letters and good advice were a godsend. Keep up the good work everybody.

[clutchingatstraws]

The dogs are out for you

Well done WVM