Regarding the doorstep collector - be advised that these people have NO powers whatsoever, so you can safely tell them where to get off in whatever (non threatening) language you feel like using. They have likely bought the debt at £0.06 in the pound (the going rate for debts sold to other companies who then just chance their hand with some doorstep intimidation).

Then just send the company concerned the following letter :--

Name & address of the creditor

Todays date :

Your ref :

Their ref :

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:Your name & address

Account No: #[ORIGINAL + THEIR REF] #[ORIGINAL CREDITORS NAME]

I do not admit any liability for your claim and will not be making any payment towards it, as it is now more than six years since any cause of action may have accrued. Any claim would, therefore, appear to be statute barred under Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 and any County Court claim will be defended on that basis.

In addition, Section 2.14 of the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance states that it is unfair to pursue such claims where (as here) the original creditor (and/or their agent(s)) has/have made no contact during the relevant limitation period.

If, however, you have substantive evidence that your claim is not statute barred, then please supply it to me directly within the next 14 days.

If you are unable to provide such evidence please confirm in writing that no further action will be taken against me on this matter.

Yours faithfully

[Your Signature]

I hope this helps

It WOULD be a breach of the terms and conditions (generally), so if THAT person took an unauthorised amount out of the account, or divulged the pin code to someone else, the bank would rightly have a case to argue that you had acted negligently, so I would imagine that any court would take the view that YOU would be liable for the loss. If the terms & conditions of the account contract (that's what it effectively is, a contract in legal terms) do not allow third party access, then you cannot "legitimately" give any third party access, but it would need a judge to decide whether that third party had acted negligently if you DID give someone else access.

The banks often turn a blind eye to these activities when it suits their purposes and they are making money out of it. When it turns sour and they begin to lose money, they look for someone else to whom they can pass the buck, but they can't legally have it both ways.

The banks negligence can be argued in court (if it can be shown that they knew about third party access and had turned a blind eye on a previous occasion(s)) if it was their system that was insufficient to safeguard your money (they would generally agree to "award you the sum lost - as an act of good faith (sic)" IF you took them to Court and requested the court to issue an Order of Discovery to have a copy of the banks security system (i.e. the software that runs the cash-point and which controls all transactions in / out of your accounts), because they would never divulge that software. It is easier and a lot cheaper for them to reimburse you than allow a court to order the hand-over of their security software.

However, we're getting into a bit of what would be a complex argument here, but the bottom line is that if the person to whom you had given access had not divulged the pin code to anyone else, and wasn't negligent with its security, and wasn't the person who took the money from the account, then the same argument above applies, but you'd more than likely have to get the matter into a court (on a case for negligence by the bank) to argue these points in order to get the money reinstated to your account, if this is what has happened to you.

This type of action could arguably be construed as "discrimination" contrary to (Human Rights Act) Article 14: Prohibition of discrimination under the heading "and any other discrimination"

In point of fact, if money is taken out of the account of ANY person, by someone other than themselves or those with authority to do so, then that amounts to a criminal offence against the Bank / Building Society.

So long as the customer reports to the bank and makes a complaint to them that the Bank / Building Society has mishandled their account, it is for the Bank or Building Society to then report the matter to the police as a crime committed against themselves and assume responsibility for the matter themselves (by putting back into the account the money stolen from it whilst it was under their care by way of a gratuitous bailment) as no crime has been committed against the customer whose money the bank is responsible for securing.

To do otherwise would be for the bank / building society's staff to commit a number of criminal offences against the customer (see below), and irrespective of whatever they say in their policies, they cannot lawfully sidestep that responsibility.

The criminal offences the Bank / Building Society staff would be committing are :--

Harassment contrary to the S. 40 Administration of Justice Act 1970. The bank / building Societies course of conduct amounts to harassment of anyone in this situation, and is also contrary to SS 2 and 7 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

The Bank / Building Societies staffs' actions of would also amount to “evasion of liability by deception” contrary to S. 2 Theft Act 1968 by “attempting to obtain a pecuniary advantage from their customer by deception” contrary to S. 16 Theft Act 1968 inasmuch as they are trying to deceive their customer into accepting liability for money that was given away by the banks own staff to a criminal as a result of fraud against the Bank / Building Society. For these offences, any customer in this situation can mount a private criminal prosecution of the Bank / Building Societies chairman (by Vicarious Liability at Common Law) and / or the staff who refuse to refund their money (you would charge both and play one off against the other(s))

If the bank / building society wanted to take money from a customer in this situation, they would need a court Order to do so, from either the County Court or High Court (depending on the amount in question), otherwise they would be committing the criminal offences described.

Until recently, I was a debt advice specialist with Bedford Citizens Advice Bureau (now a debt consultant with Resettle.me.uk) and this is the advice I give to my clients.

Bryan Carter are selective about who thay state they have received letters from, so it is often best to send them a copy of your letter by fax to use the fax report as proof that they have in fact received your letter.

Their fax number is 0845 223 5656