Sorry, I missed out what I believe is the most important thing: Although he considers himself to be a "social smoker" (the oxymoron of all time) he wasn't smoking in his taxi. He never smokes in cars or indoors.

Hi all, I am after a bit of advice regarding a Fixed Penalty Notice issued to my father from our local council. It was issued to him for smoking in his car (which is a taxi and therefore classed as a smoke free place). It was originally issued for something else (smoking in a bus station) but was changed by the person issuing it. Now the council have no evidence at all other than the original allegation. There is no photographic proof, no video, no cctv and no other witnesses. Just the one statement. As it was on a Sunday, both my father and the "licencing officer" were on a day off. He was sent the original ticket through the post, but as they sent the wrong part, and the wrong details were put on it, the licencing officer knocked on his door, said he had an important document about his taxi licence, then handed him the new one. She didn't know his address so she looked it up on their database of licensed taxi drivers that the council have. In her statement she says that she followed him as he picked up his family and then went shopping. She actually followed him in her car to the supermarket, waited outside while they went shopping, then followed him home until he pulled into a police station. This in total was over an hour and a half. We went to court this month to plead not guilty, and that is where we are at now. He is not entitled to legal aid, and can not afford a solicitor. My questions are as follows: 1. Am I right in saying that the onus is on the council to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was indeed smoking in his taxi, or have I been watching too many ITV crime dramas. 2. If so can he be found guilty based on just the one statement from the council? 3. Would it be a case of him having to prove his innocence and having to come up with reasons why she would lie? 4. Are there data protection issues with them looking up his home address on their taxi drivers database to issue tickets like these? 5. Is it worth going down the road of asking why she didn't take a snap or two on her camera phone? Any help or advice from people who have had some experience with this would be really useful. Thanks.

This is a company called "Aims Review". I know this because after hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of calls from them including calls where they repetitively hung up on me, called me stupid, told me I can't read and swore at me, I decided to say yes to everything they asked. They then read out a legal statement saying that the company is Aims Review. If you tell them that you need your PPI claimed back then they will read out the same statement. I don't know how you managed to get that far with the ministry of justice as there is no such company as the ppi helpline. If they say they are from the PPI Helpline or Hotline then they know they are flat out liars. Now, the fun starts when I ring the head office. First of all on their website aimsreview.com, they clearly state that they are not registered in the UK. It's based out in Gibraltar. I'm no international business lawyer, but I am pretty sure that Gibraltars laws are a lot less stringent to ours. I have phoned the head office a few times to calmly and polity ask them to stop and they say it's not them! it is. I say I have recordings of them saying that it is aims Review and I usually get hung up on. The last time I was called a "tosser". I live over 200 miles from their offices ( Unit 7 Trident Park, Trident Way, Blackburn, BB1 3NU ), however it is at the point now where I am about to make the journey. Failing that, I'm gonna expose all the managers and staff and and let all of their friends and family know that they are lying [problem] artists.

Thanks for all the response everyone. They have allready agreed that they require the proof of address, proof of signature, and signed contract for them to put the default on my file. They just won't check weather they have it or not. The only response I can really get from them on the phone is that I should phone the police and report a fraud, which is a road I don't want to go down. I just want them to look for the documents and realise that they don't have them. I might just forget calling them and just send them the request in the snail mail.

Thanks for the response guys. The situation in 2004 was that to set up an account you needed the two proofs of ID and the signed contract. An independent dealer would call Orange and tell them that they have these and give all the relevant info. If a customer does not pay then Orange go back to the dealer and get the documents. If the company doesn't have these or is missing some then Orange charge the company. I am sure that things have updated now and it will be a lot more secure, but in 2004 this was not the case. A lot of dealers would "take the risk" on someone, for example if they only had a passport but no proof of address, they would connect them up if they thought that they would pay the bill and therefore never need to send the ID to Orange. So the point I am making is that they didn't have any of the required ID or signed contract with me. I was always under the impression that if it was a bank or loan then they would need the required ID or paperwork to show on request or they would have to remove any defaults. No contract... no debt?

Hi all, I have just checked my credit file for the first time and saw a default on it from Orange mobile. To cut a long story short, it was signed up through an independent dealer with no signed contract, proof of address, or proof of ID. Orange don't know that there is no proof, but I can assure you that there isn't. Also, even if there were proofs, the independent dealer went into liquidation about a year ago. My question is this: Can I get the default removed by requesting them to prove it or remove it? I have heard of this happening with certain bank charges or utility bills. I have requested over the phone that someone check this out for me but I either get hung up on or I get the "I'll send it to the team and they will get back to me" routine. The contract was set up in 2004 and defaulted in June 2006. Can anyone help me out here?