Co-op Lewis and Howard Cohen

[phatram]

After fighting off the following,

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?235045-US-v-Fredricsons-Coop

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?267034-Moorcroft-CO-OP

 

The accounts have been passed to Lewis DRS in Leeds, who in turn have passed onto Cohen. Cohen have today written to me at my daughters address in another city as well as at my home address.

 

Opened this thread "just in case".

[phatram]

Re: Co-Operative Bank Plc

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Thank you for your letter of 20/06/2011 the contents of which are noted.

May I first of all take this opportunity to remind yourselves and Lewis that my address is as on this letter. I DO NOT live in Nottingham and DO NOT take kindly to my mail being sent to my daughter at her university lodgings. I will be taking this matter further if it happens again.

 

As holders of a Consumer Credit Licence you are obliged to comply with the Office of Fair Trading Guidelines on Debt Collection. I would therefore be obliged if you would provide me with an explanation as to why you are attempting to collect on an alleged debt which was disputed with THE CO-OPERATIVE BANK Plc prior to your first contact with me, and has yet to be resolved.

As per OFT guidelines Section 2.8k "not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt."

 

Since this is considered an unfair practice and contrary to the OFT guidelines, you should consider this letter as a formal complaint, and provide me with a copy of your complaint resolution procedure.

I also require you to confirm that you will now comply with the OFT guidelines, and will not attempt any further collection activity whilst the dispute is unresolved.

 

After taking advice, I am of the opinion that your continued pursuit is in violation of the CPUTR 2008, Protection from harassment Act 1997 section 3 as well as breaching a number of the OFT Collection Guidelines.

 

Should you fail to provide me with the required undertaking within 7 days, I shall report your breach of the OFT guidelines to Trading Standards and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Take notice that I will not discuss this matter on the telephone, and all further communication must be in writing. Any further telephone calls will be perceived as harassment, and dealt with accordingly.

 

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you would prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

 

I look forward to hearing from you in writing.

 

Yours faithfully

[the_shadow]

Hmm personally as they had your address I would be complaining to the OFT without warning.. underhand tactics.. DCA/solicitors... what surprise

 

S.

[phatram]

Edited July 6, 2011 by phatram

[phatram]

Any advice please?

[consumeredge]

Hi phatram

 

The attachment is to small to view or read

 

Kind regards

 

c

[phatram]

 

 

The attachment is only a smaller version of the letter. I can't seem to get rid of it.

[phatram]

The attachment is only a smaller version of the letter. I can't seem to get rid of it.

 

 

What do I send to cohens?

[citizenB]

I would suggest you write to the Co-op, Phatram.. if they have instructed these clowns to pursue what is obviously an account in dispute and where they owe you money... then only they can pull them off.

 

I would suggest you copy Cohens in on anything you send to the Co-op which should.. get them off your back.

 

You could point out to the co-op that this is a form of harrassment as per harrison v link

[phatram]

Thank you.

[phatram]

To Cohen,

 

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letters of the 4th and 5th of July 2011. We repeat we consider both these accounts to be in dispute. The Co-operative Bank knows this and is not being truthful with you.

Find enclosed a copy of an up to date spreadsheet showing the amount we believe the Co-operative Bank owe us.

The consolidation loan taken out was to pay off an overdraft made up of unlawful charges and interest on those charges, and webelieve that this loan needs to be recalculated to allow for this.

The amount they say we owe for the current account overdraft is made up completely of unlawful bank charges and interest on those charges.

We are in the process of claiming back these charges and we enclose a copy of an up to date spreadsheet showing the amount we are claiming.

When the bank pay the amount owed to us, we shall settle all debts owing to them if of course there are any.

You are now the third agency to try to recover monies from us that we do not owe, perhaps like Moorcroft and Fredricsons you will see sense and return this to the CO-OP.

If you and the bank continue to harass us for non existent debts and use our data incorrectly you will leave us with no choice but to take matters further through the courts.

[citizenB]

Sounds fine to me, Phatram

[phatram]

To COOP,

 

We are writing to you again as we are being harassed by Howard Cohen & Co solicitors who say they are acting on your behalf and as they do not hold a CCL say you are responsible for what is happening.

As holders of a Consumer Credit Licence you are obliged to comply with the Office of Fair Trading Guidelines on Debt Collection. We would therefore be obliged if you would provide us with an explanation as to why you are still employing debt collection agencies to attempt to collect on alleged debts which have been in dispute with yourselves for over two years now, and in our opinion have yet to be resolved.

As per OFT guidelines Section 2.8k "not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt."

 

Since this is considered an unfair practice and contrary to the OFT guidelines, you should consider this letter as a formal complaint, and provide me with a copy of your complaint resolution procedure.

we also require you to confirm that you will now comply with the OFT guidelines, and will not attempt any further collection activity whilst the dispute is unresolved.

 

After taking advice, we are of the opinion that your continued pursuit is in violation of the CPUTR 2008, Protection from harassment Act 1997 section 3 as well as breaching a number of the OFT Collection Guidelines.

 

Should you fail to provide us with the required undertaking within 7 days, we shall report your breach of the OFT guidelines to Trading Standards and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

 

Take notice that we will not discuss this matter on the telephone, and all further communication must be in writing. Any further telephone calls will be perceived as harassment, and dealt with accordingly.

 

We hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with us about this matter and we are writing this letter to you on the assumption that you would prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

Find enclosed an up to date copy of the spreadsheet we are using in our action to reclaim unlawful bank charges.

 

We would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

 

We look forward to hearing from you in writing.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

Any good?

[phatram]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm new to this site so please excuse me. If I'm not in the right place, can someone direct me to where I need to go.

 

:violin:Back to my problem with Howard Cohen/CL Finance/Lewis Group/GE Money. I unfortunately was unwell back in 2007 and subsequently lost my job in 2008 due to other factors such as my son also becoming unwell and my mum becoming terminal and passing away. However, loss of income = multiple debt collectors on my back. I had a couple of storecards with GE Money and a HBOS loan, all had PPI insurance. To cut a long story short, I have been taken to court twice by Howard Cohen and managed to win my cases (representing myself) because I could prove that I had PPI insurance and had been in dispute with the companies and they had no right to bring the case to court without my acknowledgement or looking into the dispute. I managed to get my costs (£5 travel) awarded against them for one of the cases also. I have never disputed the loan (around £6K) with them and made arrangements to pay £40 monthly. As you are aware, with the economic climate with petrol prices, the rising cost of shopping and the cost of having to buy equipment for college (studying part time as a beauty therapist and nail technician), I got into problems with a beauty supplier for a nail kit (£66) which unfortunately was no good and it ended up with trading standards who had advised that I have to take them to court under the Sale of Goods Act. I cannot afford this so it is money down the drain and had to rebuy my kit. I forgot to make a payment and got a nasty letter from them to resume payment. I contacted them and told them what had happened and they wanted a new income and expenditure. I explained that I could only now afford £25 instead of £40 (also I am still trying to get my mum's headstone erected as it is now 3 years since she passed and trying to negotiate monthly payments with the stonemasons for a £3k bill which is the minimum headstone/kerbset that the cemetery will allow). I paid the first £25 and received a 'notice of legal action' letter. The letter threatens legal action...mentions information about CPR 4.....and that I should reply within the stated deadlines. But there are no deadlines in the letter. I telephoned again and found that they were not happy with the reduced payment. I asked them what the deadlines were in the letter and I was told, it was as soon as I got it, there were no particular deadlines. One lady in particular was livid when i told her i was paying £70 for my Virgin account but it has arrears attached and she wanted to see the bill. Another one wanted to know why I could not take sandwiches to college instead of buying my lunch at the cafe! They were upset that they found £40 left at the end of the month and said that it was too much for me to have left over (they had not taken clothes, my sons clothes into account). I spoke to four people that day, in the end, the last gentlement accepted my offer of £25 and I made the payment and continued to do so. I then received another 'notice of legal action' with NO deadlines. I was in the end of my term assessment and exams and did not respond but kept payment and hey presto, I now have a court money claim that I had defaulted on the agreement (which I have not). I have returned the service of acknowledgement defending the whole amount so I wanted some advice please for my defence. I am also quoting that they do searches on Land Registry to see if you own your property and then add this charge to your account.

 

:?:1. I need some clarification on the 'Ozannes Attorney' area where I have noticed in my past cases, they are listed as representing GE Money and CL Finance and was concerned about them signing for both parties.

2.. Is it better to go to Small Claims or Fast Track?

3.. Am I allowed to be able to purchase my mum's headstone (under Human Rights Act Article 6) even though I have a debt?

4. Is there anyway I can avoid the CCJ even if the Judge sets the repayments as I do not want them to be able to register a CCJ as this will defeat my future employment prospects if I wish to go self employed as I am due to be transitioned from Incapacity Benefit soon.

5. I received a default notice from Lewis Group back in 2009, do i request it again along with the notice of assignment and credit agreement

6. Can I make a counterclaim for harassment as this will be the third time they have dragged me to court?

Sorry this is so long

 

You need to start your own thread so this gets seen.

[the_shadow]

Thread moved here, http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?314138-Lewis-and-Howard-Cohen-taking-me-to-court-(again)

 

Cheers

 

S.

[phatram]

Received the usual "we are sorry you're not happy" letter from co op and them this morning message on answerphone from them asking me to ring them. Nothing at all from Cohens.

[phatram]

This has now been passed to Lowells . I've written them a go away letter similar to above.

[citizenB]

phatram, do please be aware if this debt is over £750.00 that Lowells are issuing statutory demands like confetti.

[phatram]

It is, so what should I do? The two accounts were genuinely in dispute due to the amount of bank charges,loan sold to us to pay off o/d which was all charges.

 

They have only written to me even though one account was a joint current account.

Edited February 15, 2013 by phatram

[citizenB]

If they were in dispute and still are at time of sale/assignment then that is a reason for set aside. Have a quick look round some of the stat demand threads. Although most appear to be set aside there have been one or two that sadly, have failed, although we believe they shouldnt have. . So you need to see both sides and what you have to look out for.

[phatram]

Letter from Lowells, account on hold while they investigate.

[phatram]

Letter I sent to Frederickson International in 2009,

 

Frederickson International Ltd

PO Box 260

WEYBRIDGE

Surrey

KT13 0YH

Your Ref: ********

Dear Sir / Madam,

CO_OPERATIVE Bank Loan A/C ****************

With regards the above accounts/reference numbers; 
Your client THE COOPERATIVE BANK have been aware since early 2009 that this account was in dispute, and being investigated by FOS.

In your letter of the 23 November 2009, you enclosed copies of 6 statements of our current account with The Co-Operative bank. This data has been illegally processed by yourselves and the Bank as the account was closed on 16 June 2009 with a nil balance. We are in the process of taking action against yourselves and the Co-Operative bank concerning this matter.




Despite clear written notification of such, your clients have shown a total disregard to both Consumer legislation and also matters under the Data Protection Act 1980 by its instructions to yourselves to further pursue collection whilst a dispute remains. 
I now put you on written notice to the fact that this matter has now been handed over to my solicitors to deal with.

 

Therefore, you must now immediately cease sending any further collection correspondence to myself, refrain from any further attempts at collecting any payment with regards these accounts, and also immediately cease processing my personal data in respect of any alleged arrears or debt.

 

Should your collection activity continue following being made aware of this:

 

1/ I shall immediately seek directions from the Court with a view to obtaining an injunction against your company, preventing your continued harassment.

 

2/ I shall also file formal complaints with the FSA, the OFT and also my local Trading Standards office, with a view to urging a review of your suitability to retain your CCA74 & other regulatory licenses.

 

3/ All correspondence from yourselves will continue to be retained by myself, and may later be used as evidence in a future claim for damages.

 

The FSA has recently issued stern warnings to those individuals and organisations who have initiated hostile actions (threats and secondary actions, addition of collection charges, and the sharing, passing or processing of personal data with third parties) whilst customers are seeking to enforce their Statutory and legal rights, and I strongly suggest you familiarise yourselves to these warnings.

 

Since this is a formal complaint you are also required to send me a copy of your complaints procedure, as per guidance from the Financial Services Association, and also the Financial Ombudsman, who act on their behalf.

 

I look forward to receiving a copy of these, together with your written undertaking that your own attempts at further recoveries will now be suspended.

 

Yours Faithfully

Would a similar letter be of use to Lowells?

[phatram]

I've been looking back through my records and this is the second time Lowells have had these two accounts for collection. The last time was in 2009 and after I notified them of the disputes they returned the accounts to the Co-op. Should I write to them to remind them of this?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Yes, address your letter to:

PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL

Ms Sarah de Tute

Director of Legal & Compliance

The Lowell Group

Enterprise House

1 Apex View

Leeds

LS11 9BH

 

No point in going through useless customer service which have no authority beyond the restricted company script!!

 

Best sent recorded/signed for post.