1st Credit - Connaught - Goldfish, Stat Demand ** Won** + Costs

[AllanLyn]

I went to the County Court today, Judge not impressed with 1st Credit - Connaught set aside the Stat Demand and virtually talked me into claiming costs, awarded me £50. I had requested 1st Credit - Connaught provide me with a copy of the original agreement which they were unable to do... in fact never even replied to me or the Court. If any one wants a copy of the letter i sent to them let me know.

Edited February 15, 2011 by alanfromderby
Error in costs figure corrected by poster.

[rockwell304]

Congrats! well done with this!

May I ask was this originally Morgan Stanley - then Goldfish? I assume the debt was bought by 1st Credit.

[babybear39]

[Happyhippy1959]

Well done......

[wittsend]

nice one congratulations

[42man]

Make sure you report them to the Office Of Fair Trading too...

[PGH7447]

and if you dont get your costs within 14 days set a DCA on them

[babybear39]

We shoud have a CAG DCA specifically for these situations

[AllanLyn]

Thanks for all the congrats folks... Yes this was a Morgan Stanley account sold on eventually to 1st Credit. The Judge told me i was the third person he had seen in the same situation and he was aware that Morgan Stanley accounts were changed to goldfish then sold on to Lloyds then Barclays who seem to have off loaded many of them to the DCA's, however, the paper trail is so bad that it is almost impossible for any of the DCA's to get a copy of the original agreement or even enough info to make a case. He noticed on my stat demand that it stated the original creditor was "Goldfish" and he said I would have got my set aside granted on that alone as the original creditor was Morgan Stanley. It was granted to me because Conaught failed to provide me with a copy of the documents they would have been relying on in Court I had requested them under CPR PD 16 para 7.3 and CPR 31.14 sent it recorded delivery and they did not reply to the request .... easy as that.

 

I have also sent away tonight a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.

Edited February 8, 2011 by AllanLyn

[babybear39]

A nice complaint to TS and the OFT as 1st crud are still under OFT sanctions by the OFT for trying to use the insolvencey service as a debt collection tool. Oh, and copy them in to really kick the boot in. Not that I'm biased at all you understand

[42man]

This is very interesting, especially so as you invoked the Civil Procedure Rules, which I was led to believe cannot normally be used as bankruptcy is governed by the Isolvency Rules....

 

Application of the Rules

 

2.1

 

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), these Rules apply to all proceedings in –

(a) county courts;

 

(b) the High Court; and

 

© the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal.

 

 

(2) These Rules do not apply to proceedings of the kinds specified in the first column of the following table (proceedings for which rules may be made under the enactments specified in the second column) except to the extent that they are applied to those proceedings by another enactment –

ProceedingsEnactments1.Insolvency proceedingsInsolvency Act 19861, ss.411 and 4122.Non-contentious or common form probate proceedingsSupreme Court Act 19812, s.1273.Proceedings in the High Court when acting as a Prize CourtPrize Courts Act 18943, s.34.Proceedings before the Court of ProtectionMental Capacity Act 20054, s.515.Family proceedingsMatrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 19845, s.406.Adoption proceedingsAdoption Act 19766, s.66 or Adoption and Children Act 2002, s.141©7.7.Election petitions in the High CourtRepresentation of the People Act 19838, s.182

[Happyhippy1959]

well done Allanlyn what will be there next move ??????? The moral letter me thinks... I have an old morgan stanley from the naughty nineties, paying off at token rate so I have followed this with glee....

[AllanLyn]

Hi 42man .... I had no idea that the CPR rules did not apply and and I may never know if 1st credit did not reply because I used those rules, this is the sentence from my letter to them and which the judge read and made no comment to me about it being wrong.

1. The agreement. You will appreciate that in an ordinary case and by reason of the provisions of CPR PD 16 para 7.3, where a claim is based upon a written agreement, a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement should be attached to or served with the particulars of claim and the original(s) should be available at the hearing (the copy should be a true copy signed by both parties it should be clear and legible with the terms and conditions attached that were in force at the time of signing).

 

Then further down I added this : You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the document(s) I have requested are copied to and received by me within 7 days of receiving this letter. Your CPR 31 duties extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for the originals of the documents I have requested, the better for you to be able to verify the document's authenticity and to provide me with a legible copy. Further, where I have requested a copy of a document, the original of which is now in the possession of another person, you will have a right to possession of that document if you have mentioned it in your case. You must take immediate steps to recover and preserve it for the purpose of this case.

 

There was of course more to the letter and the judge read it all the way way through, asked me if they responded, told him no, and he said " for that reason I have no problem granting the set aside. how much in costs would you like?"

 

Who knows? ... maybe i was just lucky but it was still a win and I guess others might want to give it a try.

[42man]

I am delighted you won, as I had been in a similar situation myself.....I think you had a good judge too !!! It makes me rethink the approach now to these demands...

[alanfromderby]

Please note correction to opening post - costs awarded were £50.

[Duffers Mum]

Well done! It brings back that good feeling I had when I got a set aside on a Statutory Demand from, yes...1st Credit...I was awarded costs of approx £130 and yes they did pay within the 14 days the default is still showing on my credit file, but credit file hasn't been updated since the set aside in 2008, I do get yearly statements from 1st Credit though, so its obviously still on their books!