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    • Thank-you dx, What you have written is certainly helpful to my understanding. The only thing I would say, what I found to be most worrying and led me to start this discussion is, I believe the judge did not merely admonish the defendant in the case in question, but used that point to dismiss the case in the claimants favour. To me, and I don't have your experience or knowledge, that is somewhat troubling. Again, the caveat being that we don't know exactly what went on but I think we can infer the reason for the judgement. Thank-you for your feedback. EDIT: I guess that the case I refer to is only one case and it may never happen again and the strategy not to appeal is still the best strategy even in this event, but I really did find the outcome of that case, not only extremely annoying but also worrying. Let's hope other judges are not quite so narrow minded and don't get fixated on one particular issue as FTMDave alluded to.
    • Indians, traditionally known as avid savers, are now stashing away less money and borrowing more.View the full article
    • the claimant in their WS can refer to whatever previous CC judgements they like, as we do in our WS's, but CC judgements do not set a legal precedence. however, they do often refer to judgements like Bevis, those cases do created a precedence as they were court of appeal rulings. as for if the defendant, prior to the raising of a claim, dobbed themselves in as the driver in writing during any appeal to the PPC, i don't think we've seen one case whereby the claimant referred to such in their WS.. ?? but they certainly typically include said appeal letters in their exhibits. i certainly dont think it's a good idea to 'remind' them of such at the defence stage, even if the defendant did admit such in a written appeal. i would further go as far to say, that could be even more damaging to the whole case than a judge admonishing a defendant for not appealing to the PPC in the 1st place. it sort of blows the defendant out the water before the judge reads anything else. dx  
    • Hi LFI, Your knowledge in this area is greater than I could possibly hope to have and as such I appreciate your feedback. I'm not sure that I agree the reason why a barrister would say that, only to get new customers, I'm sure he must have had professional experience in this area that qualifies him to make that point. 🙂 In your point 1 you mention: 1] there is a real danger that some part of the appeal will point out that the person appealing [the keeper ] is also the driver. I understand the point you are making but I was referring to when the keeper is also the driver and admits it later and only in this circumstance, but I understand what you are saying. I take on board the issues you raise in point 2. Is it possible that a PPC (claimant) could refer back to the case above as proof that the motorist should have appealed, like they refer back to other cases? Thanks once again for the feedback.
    • Well barristers would say that in the hope that motorists would go to them for advice -obviously paid advice.  The problem with appealing is at least twofold. 1] there is a real danger that some part of the appeal will point out that the person appealing [the keeper ] is also the driver.  And in a lot of cases the last thing the keeper wants when they are also the driver is that the parking company knows that. It makes it so much easier for them as the majority  of Judges do not accept that the keeper and the driver are the same person for obvious reasons. Often they are not the same person especially when it is a family car where the husband, wife and children are all insured to drive the same car. On top of that  just about every person who has a valid insurance policy is able to drive another person's vehicle. So there are many possibilities and it should be up to the parking company to prove it to some extent.  Most parking company's do not accept appeals under virtually any circumstances. But insist that you carry on and appeal to their so called impartial jury who are often anything but impartial. By turning down that second appeal, many motorists pay up because they don't know enough about PoFA to argue with those decisions which brings us to the second problem. 2] the major parking companies are mostly unscrupulous, lying cheating scrotes. So when you appeal and your reasons look as if they would have merit in Court, they then go about  concocting a Witness Statement to debunk that challenge. We feel that by leaving what we think are the strongest arguments to our Member's Witness Statements, it leaves insufficient time to be thwarted with their lies etc. And when the motorists defence is good enough to win, it should win regardless of when it is first produced.   
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    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
      We will be recommending that people do include this adverse judgement in their bundle so that when they go to county court the judge will see both sides and see the arguments against this adverse judgement.
      Also, we will be to demonstrate to the judge that we are fair-minded and that we don't mind bringing everything to the attention of the judge even if it is against our own interests.
      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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Swift charges unlawful


paulwlton
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That's brilliant news Paul. Well done!!! :-D

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  • 10 months later...

Paul hi,

 

 

I was interested in your comments regarding Swifts unlawful charges for the period you listed, only I took out a swift loan in 2007 for £7500 for ten years that's due to end in October this year.

I have already paid back £15000 and Swift are demanding an additional £18500 IN October FOR INTEREST AND ACCOUNT CHARGES due to some missed payments during the last 10 years.

This amount seems crazy I wondered if it is even legal I would have to sell my house to raise this sort of money. any advice or info would be appreciated.

 

 

Best Regards

J Dallison.

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The Ombudsman took a similar view too.

 

Ref:

 

complaint

Mrs M complains that Swift Advances Plc (Swift) has applied excessive fees and charges to her secured loan account.

 

 

The amount Mrs M owes Swift has increased over time rather than reducing as she has made repayments.

 

 

Mrs M is very concerned that she will end up losing her home.

 

background

Mrs M took out a secured loan with Swift Advances Plc in September 2005 for around £20,000 over a 10-year term.

 

The secured loan history shows that some repayments to the loan account have been missed, paid late or made in part since 2006.

 

 

The account has had arrears charges, legal fees and additional interest added to it over the years.

 

 

As a consequence, the loan balance has not reduced in line with a standard loan profile.

 

A number of repayment arrangements have been agreed, however, repayments made have not been large enough to cover charges and additional interest on the account, and have not reduced the loan balance.

 

During discussions with Swift in 2013, Mrs M became aware of the extent to which her loan balance had increased and so she raised her complaint.

 

 

adjudicator’s findings

The adjudicator recommended that the complaint be upheld to the extent that he considered there were a number of fees that should be refunded to Mrs M,

 

 

but, in general, he found that the loan account balance was reflective of the money Mrs M owed to Swift, and that Swift had demonstrated it had made sufficient effort to agree “affordable” repayment plans with Mrs M.

 

Mrs M rejected the adjudicator’s findings and so this complaint has now been passed to me for a final decision.

 

my findings

I have considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint.

 

 

Having done so,

I have come to the same decision as the adjudicator and for broadly the same reasons.

 

I note that Swift has now increased its offer to refund charges to Mrs M since the adjudicator’s opinion was issued.

 

 

Swift has offered to refund nearly £3,000 of fees and charges to Mrs M’s account.

 

Swift has also placed Mrs M’s borrowing onto a lower interest rate as part of a 12-month concession agreement, due to be renegotiated later in the year.

 

arrears fees and charges

The approach of this service is that arrears fees and account management charges, also charged by Swift to loan accounts in arrears, should not be charged in months where the loan repayment has been made, or where a contractual repayment plan was in place and the agreed payment made.

 

 

Arrears charges and account management charges should reflect work undertaken by the business in managing those arrears, and multiple fees each month are considered to be unfair.

 

Swift’s offer to refund charges is in line with this guidance. The arrears charges that haven’t been reversed have been applied in months where repayments were not made. I am satisfied that the offer Swift has made to refund fees seems fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint.

interest rate

 

I appreciate that Mrs M had wanted Swift to “freeze” interest on her loan account as she considered that interest was escalating to the point where she would never be able to repay her loan.

 

 

I find that Swift’s concessionary agreement, reducing the rate of interest charged to around 8%, is reasonable in the circumstances.

 

 

I hope that Swift will continue to honour a concessionary interest rate when the current agreement is up for renewal later this year.

 

conclusion

I understand how concerned Mrs M must have been when she realised that her borrowings with Swift had escalated to such a degree.

 

 

Even after the refund of fees offered by Swift, this still leaves Mrs M with a significantly higher balance to repay than the initial sum borrowed in 2005.

 

Whilst regrettable, this balance has resulted from partial, late, and missed secured loan repayments.

I am satisfied that this balance is a true reflection of Mrs M’s loan account.

 

 

I would encourage Mrs M to try to meet her secured loan repayments as per her agreed repayment plan with Swift although I accept that repayment of this debt by monthly instalment will take significantly longer than Mrs M might have hoped.

 

my final decision

My final decision is that I uphold Mrs M’s complaint, to the extent that Swift Advances Plc should make its existing offer in full and final settlement of this complaint by:

 

- Refunding of the agreed fees and charges to Mrs M’s account, with an adjustment of interest; and

- Honouring the lower interest rate already made available to Mrs M to the end of the current 12-month concession period.

Emma Peters

 

ombudsman

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. <br />

Winston Churchill

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