Thanks Nutty Tart! I'm really scared now I've got a court date. I'm reading all the info but I think I might hire a solicitor (not that I can afford it).

Sorry I've just found the relevant thread!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been given a hearing date of 15th January, and I'm worried as Abbey are still refusing to settle in full. Is it normal for it to get this far? Both me and Abbey have filed our allocation questionnaires, and this is the date that has been set.

I have concucted the above letter which I will be posting to Shabby tommorow, following the red letter I received at the weekend which made my blood boil. This shouldn't affect my claim should it? I wrote it myself...

There was a documentary recently, where they showed baliffs claimimg they are allowed to take items from anywhere in the house. This is completely illegal, they can only take your property, and any attampt to take other items is theft. I'm sure this wouldn't happen, but if it did call the police. It would be extremely unlikely that you would go to prison if you tell them you want to pay the debt (even in very small installments). As far as I'm aware the only people who go to jail over debt are the people who point blank refuse to pay. A Justice of the Peace (or JP) is an unpaid voluntary magistrate, who has the same powers etc as a full time paid magistrate.

Apologies for the long delay in updating this thread. Basically I sent the final LBA claimimg back over £2,940 and have had absolutely no reply from Abbey. I sent this on 12 September, and while I would normally have submitted my claim online already, I have not got the £30 to do so. Cutting long stories short I received a letter on Saturday evening when I got home from work, from a complany called Equidebt claimimg that I had to pay them £2,538.03 by that day, or action would be taken against me, possibly in the County Court. I called them first thing and explained that I did not believe Abbey were allowed to do this, as my account is still in dispute as it is pending Court action (by me). The lady on the phone was most helpful and confirmed they would not (themselves) take the matter further. I then called Abbey's complaints and gave a chap called Craig a big earful, as not one person in his team has bothered to do what they say they are going to do. I told him that I would call again on Friday morning in case Abbey do decide to change their minds. Can someone confirm that by me delaying it until Friday (as my fourteen day LBA is now a month old) - that this won't affect my claim? Also, would anyone know if Abbey were breaking the law by passing on my supposed 'debt' despite my account being in dispute? Thanks! Sean

Yes hopefully Abbey are quite nervous now. Presumably when the IC publish their findings they will explain their reasoning (either way). Hopefully the game is nearly up for Abbey...

Sorry I didn't realise you are in Scotland! My last post referred to England & Wales so ignore what I said!

Back on topic, any other view's on Dazzo's paragraph? I wouldn't take the risk incase it causes additional delay...

I apologise, in that case I'll say they they know that we beleive their arguament to be wrong. If they were right, then surely they would be able to provide a sound arguament as to why their system isn't relevant? The fact that they have said nothing on the matter except that their system is not covered (with the obvious exception of this weeks IO visit), makes me beleive they have something to hide. Additionally these files are supposed to be 'easily and readily accessible' for the purposes of an audit inspection. This (in my opinion), is also evidence of bad practice.

Yes I have searched and cannot find anything either. When I received my microfiche recently there was an extra page in the middle (I don't beleive they intended to include), which showed the microfiche boxes in numerical order, and by account number. I do not understand how they can possibly not take this to be a relevant filing system.... Still, if the IC finds that Abbey are correct then they will have to explain their reasoning to us all...

There is already a Microfiche response letter, and they are well aware that we know their microfiche arguament is, simply, wrong. The only problem with that paragraph is they may interpret it as only a partial request for charges, ie just the ones they currently hold on computer up to six years old, and that you don't want anything not held on computer. If you stick to the letters that are already available you won't risk going wrong. Also, I don't know the outcome, but I believe the Information Commissioner's Office was going to report this week on whether they beleived Abbey's microfische arguament was correct or not. It may be if they find against Abbey you won't have to wait the full forty days anyway.

This is true except where they actually hand it to the driver - then it doesn't matter. The only reason for the pouches is to prevent the ticket going missing whilst the driver's not there and nothing else.

Abbey are contradicting themselves bigtime here - they say that Microfiche aren't covered by Data Protection Act, yet at the same time ask you to fill in a form headed 'Authorisation Request for Data Protection Act Transaction Statement'. Bearing in mind that they have already supplied you with the Data that isn't on microfiche, I would take this as an admission by Abbey that their microfiche records are indeed covered by Data Protection Act.

I'm having trouble on my N1 form with the costs for my DPA request. I've decided to charge for three letters I have sent since the expiry of my DPA request, as well as court costs. I presume I will have to list the cost fee in the total? How do I know how much it will be? Any advice from anyone who has already done this or knows how to do it would be greatly appreciated! Sean