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    • Good morning,    I just wanted to update you on the situation.    I have visits piling up with my current employment and they need doing before I finish at the end of this month.  I am moving to Wiltshire in 3 weeks for a new job helping care homes with their Dementia patients. I tried to work it out and at a guess I will be doing about 20-25,000 miles a year. So need a vehicle that can cope with that mileage, my old car would have done it easy but 🤷‍♂️ I have taken out a loan and got a friend to find me a reliable car that can cope with the miles and hasn't been written off in the past.   I phoned Adrian flux to see if I could use the last months insurance on a new car I have bought, the girl I spoke to phoned Markerstudy and asked them but they said no, my new car doesn't have any modifications.    I had an email from someone who saw one of my appeals for information, they live near the site of the accident and know a nearby farmer who has a security camera at his entrance that catches the traffic and specifically registration plates as he has been robbed before. They said they would reach out for me and see if he still has the data. Unfortunately it wont catch the scene of the crash.   The Police phoned me and said they were closing the report I made, even if they found footage of the vehicle at the time I said the actual incident would be my word vs theirs.  My first response was I am sure google maps would show that they turned around at that location which would verify my version of events, but upon reflection I do understand, I have seen people doing make up with both hands while driving, eating from a bowl steering with their knees and veering all over the place. I am sure some of these people go off the road and claim that someone forced them off.    Markerstudy phoned me yesterday to say that my car is now at Copart, the £80 tank of Vpower diesel was emptied on entry to the site for safety reasons, which I get but it sucks.  It is awaiting being assessed and shouldn't be too long, which is a relief.  I am really glad things do not seem to be going the way of the other stories and they seem to moving quickly.   However I was informed that my car was a structural write off before I bought it - this destroyed me, I was almost sick.  and this is going to affect any offer of money - after hearing the first statement this didn't affect me.   They need to wait for the assessor to check it over but it is highly likely to be written off and the maximum they can offer is £2300.  I was desperate for a car as I was working for an agency at the time, no work no pay, and did not do a vehicle check because I didn't know about them.  The seller did not tell me that it had been structurally written off, he told me that it had the front wing damaged while parked and was repaired at an approved repairer.  Markerstudy records state that it was sold at auction, no record of repair at an approved repairer.  I bought it bank transfer with hand written receipt.    It gets worse.    It turns out my airbags should of gone off. For some reason they are not working. I think we can figure out why.  If I had hit that car head on and had no airbags.    Some good news.    I can arrange a time with Copart to go and take my stereo equipment and any personal items that are left in the car only. I cant live without music and need quality sound, my speakers and amps are Hertz and JLaudio, (no I am not a boy racer with booming subs, I am an audiophile on a budget) I was really worried I wouldn't get them back so this is a huge relief for me. It is stuff I have built up over years of saving and collecting. Everything to do with the vehicle and mods I have declared need to stay to be assessed.   The accident has gone as a fault on my record, I have to remove 2 years NCB which means I still have some to declare which is good.  So it appears at this point that it may be resolved quickly, not in the way I was hoping, but not as bad as I presumed it was going to be based upon that tow truck drivers attitude and behaviour and the horror stories I read.   I am not going to buy the car back and try to make money with all the parts on it, I don't have the time or energy.   I may need an xray on my back and neck.  The whole situation has left me feeling physically sick, drained and I need it done.   The lesson learnt from this  -  My conscience is 100% clear, my attitude to safety and strong sense of personal responsibility - A rated tyres even if on credit card, brake fluid flush every year, regular checks of pads and discs, bushes etc, made avoiding what I believed to be a certain broadside collision possible.   Get a dashcam (searching now for the best I can afford at the moment)  -  Research your insurance company before you buy  -  Pay for total car check before you go and see a car and take someone with you if you are not confident in your ability to assess a vehicle.      Thank you to everyone here who volunteers their time, energy and information, it is greatly appreciated.  You helped my sister with some advice a while ago but we weren't able to follow through, she is struggling with long term health conditions and I ended up in hospital for a while with myocarditis, when I got out and remembered it was too late.  I am going to make a donation now, it is not a lot, I wish I could give more, I will try to come back when things are on a more even keel.    Take care
    • It seems the solicitor has got your case listed for this “appeal” but not for the Stat Dec(SD). You need to ensure you can perform your SD on the day. If you are able to make your SD in court, the situation you are in now is more straightforward than if you made your SD via a solicitor. You have been convicted of two offences (and two were dropped) via proceedings of which you were not aware. The way to remedy that is to perform an SD. No appeal is necessary (nor is it available via the magistrates’ court). If you are able to make your SD this is how I see it panning out: You will make your SD to the court. The court must allow you to make it as it will have been made within 21 days of you discovering your convictions. You will then be asked to enter pleas to the four charges again. At this point you should plead not guilty to all four but make the court aware that you will plead guilty to the speeding charges on the condition that the FtP charges are dropped. The prosecutor will be asked whether or not this is agreed. In my opinion the overwhelming likelihood is that it will be. If it is you will be sentenced for the two speeding offences under the normal guidelines. In the unlikely event it is not accepted,  the speeding charges will be withdrawn (they have no evidence you were driving). You have no viable defence to the FtP charges and so should plead guilty. This will mean 12 points and a “totting up” ban (as you have already suffered). You can present an “Exceptional Hardship” argument to try to avoid this (explained below).   Because of this, I don’t see any need to make an argument to ask to have any ban suspended (pending an appeal to the Crown Court) unless and until you are banned again. The only reason I can think the solicitor suggested this is to secure a (Magistrates')  court date. I was surprised when you said you had an appointment so quickly; a date for an SD usually takes longer than that. However, if you can use it to your advantage, all well and good. I can’t comment on the argument that the two speeding offences were committed “on the same occasion” as I don’t have the details. That phrase is not defined anywhere and is a matter for the court to decide. It’s an interesting thought (and only that) that such an argument could equally be made for the two FtP offences. If the requests for driver’s details arrived at your old address at the same time, with the same deadline for reply, it could be argued that you failed to respond to them both “on the same occasion” (i.e when the 28 days to respond expired) and so should only receive penalty points for one. Hopefully you won’t need to go there. I think you have information about avoiding a “totting up” ban. But here’s the magistrates’ latest guidance on "Exceptional Hardship" (EH) which they refer to: When considering whether there are grounds to reduce or avoid a totting up disqualification the court should have regard to the following: It is for the offender to prove to the civil standard of proof that such grounds exist. Other than very exceptionally, this will require evidence from the offender, and where such evidence is given, it must be sworn. Where it is asserted that hardship would be caused, the court must be satisfied that it is not merely inconvenience, or hardship, but exceptional hardship for which the court must have evidence; Almost every disqualification entails hardship for the person disqualified and their immediate family. This is part of the deterrent objective of the provisions combined with the preventative effect of the order not to drive. If a motorist continues to offend after becoming aware of the risk to their licence of further penalty points, the court can take this circumstance into account. Courts should be cautious before accepting assertions of exceptional hardship without evidence that alternatives (including alternative means of transport) for avoiding exceptional hardship are not viable; Loss of employment will be an inevitable consequence of a driving ban for many people. Evidence that loss of employment would follow from disqualification is not in itself sufficient to demonstrate exceptional hardship; whether or not it does will depend on the circumstances of the offender and the consequences of that loss of employment on the offender and/or others. I must say, I still do not understand what the solicitor means by “As a safeguard we have lodged the appeal and applied to suspend your ban pending appeal due to the time limit for being able to automatically appeal without getting leave of the Judge.” When they speak of “leave of the judge” I assume they mean they have lodged an appeal with the Crown Court. I don’t know what for or why they would do this. It seems to follow on from their explanation of the “totting up” ban. If so, I’m surprised that the Crown Court has accepted an appeal against something that has not yet happened. But as I said, i is no clear to me. Only you can decide whether to employ your solicitor to represent you in court. If it was me I would not because there is nothing he can say that you cannot say yourself. However, I am fairly knowledgeable of the process and confident I can deal with it. That said, I do have a feeling that the solicitor is somewhat “over egging the pudding” by introducing such things as appeals to the Crown Court which, in all honesty, you can deal with if they are required. I can only say that the process you will attempt to employ is by no means unusual and all court users will be familiar with it. I can also say that I have only ever heard of one instance where it was refused. In summary, it is my view that it is very unlikely that your offer to do the deal will be refused. If it is accepted, you may be able to persuade he court that the two speeding offences occurred "on the same occasion" and so should only receive one lot of points. Let me know the details (timings, places, etc) and I'll give you my opinion. Just in case your offer is refused, you should have your EH argument ready. Whether it's worth paying what will amount to many hundreds of pounds to pay someone to see this through is your call.  Let me know if I can help further.    
    • This must be part of the new tactic from Evri.  They know they are going to lose. They take it to the wire and then don't bother to turn up in order to save themselves costs and of course they don't give a damn about the cost to the British taxpayer and the extra court delays they cause. This is a nasty dishonest company – but rather in line with all of the parcel delivery industry which knows that their insurance requirements are unlawful. They know that their prohibited items are for the most part unfair terms. They know for the most part that a "safe place" is exactly what it means – are not left on somebody's doorstep in full view. They know that obtaining a signature means that they have to show the signature not simply claim that they received a signature. They are making huge profits especially from their unlawful and unenforceable insurance requirement. Although this is less valuable than the PPI scandal, in terms of the number of people who are affected nationwide, PPI pales into insignificance. I hope the paralegals working for Evri are proud of themselves and they tell their families what they have done during the day when they go home.
    • Your PCN does not comply with the Protection of freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 Section 9[2][a] (a)specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates; The only time on the PCN is 17.14. That is only  a time for there to be a period there would have to be a start and and end time mentioned. of course they do show the ANPR arrival and departures  times but that is not the parking period and their times are on the photographs not on the PCN. They also failed to comply with S.9[2][f] as they omitted to say that they could only pursue the keeper if they complied with the Act. That means that they can only pursue the driver as the keeper cannot be held liable for the charge. As they do not know who was driving and Courts do not accept that the driver and the keeper are the same person they will struggle to win. Especially as so many people are able to legally drive your car and you haven't appealed giving them no indication therefore of who was driving. Small nitpicking point-the date of Infringement was 22/04/2024. They appear to be saying that they can charge an extra amount [up to £70 ] if they have to use a debt collector. You do not have a contract with a debt collector so they cannot add that cost. You paid for four hours so it can only be the 15 minutes they are complaining about. You are entitled to a ten minute minimum grace period at the end of the parking period which would be easier to explain if the car park had been bigger. However if you allow for two minutes to park and two minutes to leave that gives you one minute to account for. Things like being held on the way out by cars in front waiting to get on to Northgate or even your own car being held up trying to get on to Northgate at a busy time. then other considerations like having to stop to allow pedestrians to walk in front of you or being held up by another car doing a u turn in front of your car. you would have to check with the driver and see if they could account for an extra one minute things like a disabled passenger or having to strap in a child . I am not advocating lying since that could lead to serious problems [like jail time] but there can be an awful lot of minor things that can cause a hold up of a minute even the engine not starting straight away or another car being badly parked as examples. Sadly you cannot include the 5 minute Consideration period as both IPC and BPA fail to comply with the convention that you can include that time with the Grace period.  
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Being harassed at work-Told Bosses but still facing the sack!


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Hi,

My friend at work has been harassed by another worker for over 18 months. The other worker has been constantly shouting homophobic comments such as 'Queer'. My friend has constantly reported this to his managers and up to two months ago the best he got from them was that they 'had a word' with the offending worker, this did not stop him.

 

After my friend raised a grievance with his employers about them lacking any action whatsoever after he reported yet another incident (and had two witnesses to the homophobic shouts directed at him) the employer/manager launched an internal investigation which included interviewing every member of staff to ask them if they had witnessed any abuse from either party (even though it has always been 100% one sided).

A few employees complained to my friend that they questions were phrased very unfairly towards my friend and not really allowed to elaborate on their answers (an example of this would be the opening question was 'Have you witnessed any abuse from either party to the other?' and the interviewee would say 'No' but would then attempt to say 'but he doesn't shout it directly to his face, just within earshot' but was cut short after the answer of 'no'!)

 

My friend then received a letter from his boss stating that his investigation failed to reach a definitive conclusion (i happen to know that 3 people signed a statement to confirm they have witneesed the abuse but 3 people claimed it 'was just banter'! Also the letter said 'both of you are aware there has been several attempts by the company to resolve your issue' (where all that has happened is the verbal promise from my friend's boss of having 'had a word' with the offending employee to stop) and 'despite the company receiving assurances from both of you that the issues would be resolved, this is patently not the case' (which is impossibly as my friend hasn't given any assurances as he hasn't ever done a thing wrong, all he has done is constantly reported the harassment) and 'as a final attempt' is offering to pay for mediation via Acas.

 

My friend sent a letter back pointing out the two errors in the letter (the two quotes i have mentioned earlier) and that he was so keen for the abuse to stop that he was willing to pay half the cost of mediation and was willing to participate in his own time. This letter has not received a reply but he has been told when the time and date of the mediation is (This monday).

 

Am i right in thinking that my friend has been very harshly treated by his employers?

And would you agree that it looks very likely that my friend and the offending employee are basically close to being sacked?

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Considering this entirely neutrally (which is what a tribunal would have to do) there is little actual evidence that the employer has acted "harshly", as you put it. This isn't a sattement of support for the way they have acted, which I do not think is appropriate or well-advised - but I can see the "legal defence" they are attempting to build, and it's not to bad an attempt at following due process. And whilst I do not think that dismissal for one or both employees is impossible, not can I draw any inference from what you have said that this will happen or that the employer is currently contemplating such a course of action.

 

It's rather a poor show, therefore, that your friend and the employer (and you) have missed the case clinching eviidence! Three people, in the employers words, gave evidence that they had witnessed the alleged discriminatory (in law) remarks and they were just banter. Case closed. The employer isn't allowed to decide that they are just banter! In law it doesn't matter whether they were banter or not. All that matters is that the remarks were made (and the employer has agreed that they were), that the recipient of the remarks took them to be discriminatory (which he did) and that they were reported as such. As such, whilst participating in the mediation is a good idea, I would advise that he calmly restates his case from this angle, and maintains (assuming it is true of course) his version of events and the fact that this has not been a two way dispute (not that that matters entirely - homophobic comments are still discriminatory). If the employer does not put a stop to these comments, and decisively, then they become vacariously libale for the comments and can also be sued for discrimination.

 

If the mediation is ineffective, then I would strongly suggest legal advice (and that he saves his money for that - the employer is liable for the mediatio and he was stupid to offer to pay towards it!)

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im sorry but i find this whole scenario disgusting, your friend is suffering discrimination and bullying, would you not say. im so angered by this post, there is no need for anyone to have to suffer what your friend is going through now, whats all this about equality and diversity? its obviously not happening in your friends work place. people and businesses have been sued for less, investigate this further, no one should have to put up with it.

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Hi and thank you for your posts!!

I agree regarding the 'banter', it was my opinion that it is irrelevant whether the employers or the co-workers believed the comments were 'banter', the worker has admitted shouting them but claims that they were 'meant for somebody else'!

Yes my friend is a member of the GMB but unfortunately he has only this week had to request that a different representative take over the case as the rep who had been 'advising' him hasn't really wanted to know.

Also, what i haven't mentioned is that a few months ago he reported to his employers and the police three things:

1, the homophobic comments during work

2, being 'tailgated' by the offending worker's friend, which started within the work car park and continued into the nearest town

3, the fact that the offending worker shouted 'Queer' at him outside of work and had/has a video on his phone showing this.

The police came to our place of work and interviewed the two workers and gave them warnings but not a 'caution'. The employer then gave them both a final written warning but then took them back when the two workers appealed saying that the incidents of tailgating and of shouting 'Queer' happened outside of work. My friend argued that the homophobic comments still happened during work hours but nothing further happened!

 

Also, my friend has requested that he can see the witness statements but has yet to receive a reply from the HR department, please can anyone advise whether he is legally able to do this?

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Yes my friend is a member of the GMB but unfortunately he has only this week had to request that a different representative take over the case as the rep who had been 'advising' him hasn't really wanted to know.

 

Now, why does that not surprise me!! Let me know if a different rep is any different please.

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THIS CAN AND IF CONTINUES BE CLASSED AS CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL

 

HAVE A NOSE

 

THIS IS VERY SERIOUS AS THERE ARE NEW LEGISLATION IN THE WORK PLACE TO PROTECT PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIFFERENT SEXUAL ORIENTATION. THIS IS A EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE AND NOW UK LAW AND THE ONUS IS ON THE EMPLOYER TO INVESTIGATE AND DEAL WITH

 

IT DOES NOT MATTER IF THE PERSON IS GAY/STAIGHT/ SKY BLUE PINK

 

I WOULD NOT TOLERATE THIS IN MY WORK PLACE

 

THE ODD COMMENT STILL OCCURS (BANTER) BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT ITS NOT MALICIOUSE AND A QUIET WORD IS ALL THATS NEEDED

 

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Dismissal/DG_10026696

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Hi and thank you for your posts!!

I agree regarding the 'banter', it was my opinion that it is irrelevant whether the employers or the co-workers believed the comments were 'banter', the worker has admitted shouting them but claims that they were 'meant for somebody else'!

Yes my friend is a member of the GMB but unfortunately he has only this week had to request that a different representative take over the case as the rep who had been 'advising' him hasn't really wanted to know.

Also, what i haven't mentioned is that a few months ago he reported to his employers and the police three things:

1, the homophobic comments during work

2, being 'tailgated' by the offending worker's friend, which started within the work car park and continued into the nearest town

3, the fact that the offending worker shouted 'Queer' at him outside of work and had/has a video on his phone showing this.

The police came to our place of work and interviewed the two workers and gave them warnings but not a 'caution'. The employer then gave them both a final written warning but then took them back when the two workers appealed saying that the incidents of tailgating and of shouting 'Queer' happened outside of work. My friend argued that the homophobic comments still happened during work hours but nothing further happened!

 

Also, my friend has requested that he can see the witness statements but has yet to receive a reply from the HR department, please can anyone advise whether he is legally able to do this?

 

There is no requirement for the employer to show or give him the witness statements - and quite a few legal reasons why they shouldn't! They are statements given to the employer for a specific reason and confidential between the employer and the employee giving the statement - nobody else.

 

The employer is correct - ish in terms of incidents that happened outside of work. They can be taken into account, but it entirely depends on the circumstances, and a dismissal on these grounds, whilst not necessarily unfair, is somewhat "iffy" unless there is a clear potential for "bringing the employer into disrepute".

 

I do not think that I can add much more to my previous advice at this stage. The employer appears to have admitted that such incidents have been witnessed on work premises by colleagues and has suggested mediation. This would be an entirely reasonable thing to do. It is clearly their responsibility now to stop this behaviour, but there is little that can be done in terms of employment law unless they fail to do so.

 

It might be helpful to people to paste a link to the other thread that you have on MSE so that people can see what has been said there - that way people are not duplicating advice at length that you have already received elsewhere.

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PS - It did occur to me to ask this before, but since you have mentioned on MSE that your friend is not gay (not that that matters in terms of the inappropriate behaviour), but this made me think of it again - can you offer any explanation for why this person and his friend have taken up such behaviour? It is just that it seems rather "out of the blue" and somewhat "intense" (especially the tailgating) given that the comments are untrue. Don't get me wrong - I despise such behaviour anyway. But it makes me wonder why they are focussing this attention on him. Particularly in the context in which you seem to think that your friend is as likley to be dismissed as the perpetrator - although I cannot honestly see why you think this as there isn't any such indication in the information provided. Has there been some sort of dispute in the past? Is there some explanation, however irrational, for what these two people are doing?

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