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    • Your point 4 deals with that and puts them to strict proof .....but realistically they are not in a position to state that within their particulars they were not the creditor at the time of default but naturally assume the OC would have...so always worth challenging and if you get a DJ who knows his onions on the day may ask for further evidence from the OC internal accounts system. 
    • I see, shame, I think if a claim is 'someone was served' then proof of that should be mandatory. Appreciate your input into the WS whenever you get chance, thanks in advance
    • Paper trail off the original creditor often confirms the default and issue of a notice...not having or being able to disclose the actual copy or being able to produce a copy less so. Creditors are not compelled to keep copies of the actual default notice so you will in most cases get a reconstituted version but must contain accurate figures/dates/format.     .    
    • Including Default Notice Andy? Ok, I think this is the best I can do.. it all makes sense with references to their WS. They have included exhibits that dates don't match the WS about them, small but still.. if you're going to reference letters giving dates, then the exhibits should be correct, no? I know I redacted them too much, but one of the dates differs to the WS by a few months. IN THE ******** County Court Claim No. [***] BETWEEN: LC Asset 2 S.A.R.L CLAIMANT AND [***] DEFENDANT ************ _________________________ ________ WITNESS STATEMENT OF [***] _________________________ ________ I, [***], being the Defendant in this case will state as follows; I make this Witness Statement in support of my defence in this claim. 1. I understand that the claimant is an Assignee, a buyer of defunct or bad debts, which are bought on mass portfolios at a much-reduced cost to the amount claimed and which the original creditors have already written off as a capital loss and claimed against taxable income as confirmed in the claimant’s witness statement exhibit by way of the Deed of Assignment. As an assignee or creditor as defined in section 189 of the CCA this applies to this new requirement on assignment of rights. This means that when an assignee purchases debts (or otherwise acquires rights under a credit agreement) it also acquires certain obligations to the borrower including the duty to comply with CCA requirements (such as the rules on statements and notices and other post-contractual information). The assignee becomes the creditor under the agreement. This ensures that essential consumer protections under the CCA cannot be circumvented by assigning the debt to a third party. 2. The Claim relates to an alleged Credit Card agreement between the Defendant and Bank of Scotland plc. Save insofar of any admittance it is accepted that the Defendant has had contractual agreements with Bank of Scotland plc in the past, the Defendant is unaware as to what alleged debt the Claimant refers. 3. The Defendant requested a copy of the CCA on the 24/12/2022 along with the standard fee of £1.00 postal order, to which the defendant received a reply from the Claimant dated 06/02/2023. To this date, the Claimant has failed to disclose a valid agreement and proof as per their claim that this is enforceable, that Default Notice and Notice of Assignment were sent to and received by the Defendant, on which their claim relies. The Claimant is put to strict proof to verify and confirm that the exhibit *** is a true copy of the agreement and are the true Terms and Conditions as issued at the time of inception of the online application and execution of the agreement. 4. Point 3 is noted. The Claimant pleads that a default notice has been served upon the defendant as evidenced by Exhibit [***]. The claimant is put to strict proof to verify the service of the above in accordance with s136 and s196 Law of Property Act 1925. 5. Point 6 is noted and disputed. The Defendant cannot recall ever having received the notice of assignment as evidenced in the exhibit marked ***. The claimant is put to strict proof to verify the service of the above in accordance with s136 and s196 Law of Property Act 1925. 6. Point 11 is noted and disputed. See 3. 7. Point 12 is noted, the Defendant doesn’t recall receiving contact where documentation is provided as per the Claimants obligations under CCA. In addition, the Claimant pleads letters were sent on dates given, yet those are not the letters evidenced in their exhibits *** 8. Point 13 is noted and denied. Claimant is put to strict proof to prove allegations. 9. The Claimant did not provide a true copy of the CCA in response to the Defendants request of 24/12/2022. The Claimant further claims that the documents are sufficient to pursue a Judgement and are therefore copies of original documents in their possession. Conclusion 10. Without the Claimant providing a valid true copy of the executed Credit agreement that complies with the CCA, the Claimant has no grounds on which to enforce this alleged debt. 11. The Defendant was not given ample evidence to prove the debt and therefore was not required to enter settlement negotiations. Should the debt be proved in the future, the Defendant is willing to enter such negotiations with the Claimant. On receipt of this claim I could not recall the precise details of the agreement or any debt and sought clarity from the claimant by way of a Section 78 request. The Claimant failed to comply. I can only assume as this was due to the Claimant not having any enforceable documentation and issuing a claim in hope of an undefended default judgment.   Statement of Truth I, ********, the Defendant, believe the facts stated within this Witness Statement to be true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in it’s truth. Signed: _________________________ _______ Dated: _____________________
    • AMEX and TSB the 2 Creditors who you need to worry about the least, ever!  Just stop paying them and forget about it, ignore all their threat o gram letters.  Only if, and with these 2 it's a massive if, you end up with a claim form you need to respond, and there will be plenty of help here.
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Avoiding a train fare - court advice


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During my Easter break (whilst at home from university) I boarded a train from Redcar to Middlesbrough, and with my railcard this journey was £2.30. Unknown to me at the time, my bank cards do not work offline, and so would not work in the train conductors card machine. I then filled out the appropriate paperwork with the intention of paying the fare by phone.

 

I rang the northern rail payment service to pay the fare the next day and was informed by the lady on the phone that they had not received the bill yet, and that she would write it in the records that I had attempted to pay the fare.

 

The next day I returned to university in London for my Summer exams, and consequently forgot all about the fare, and also received none of the reminder letters as they went to my home address in Redcar.

On returning home from university I realised the time that I had to pay the fare had passed, and had a letter stating I needed to pay an £80 fine, or that I could appeal this fine.

 

I appealed by post, and a few weeks later (when I was away for the week) northern rail rang my home number and a lady over the phone told my mum that I would receive a court date, when asked about the appeal the woman replied that they hadn't received an appeal, only to then say that she had fount it, but that the matter had gone too far now and they would take me to court.

 

So my hearing is on the 8th November, and according to the letter I can either plead guilty and pay the £100 court cost or plead not guilty to fare evasion and attend a hearing and then a trial.

 

So far my intention is to plead not guilty, as obviously I have attempted to pay the fare and to appeal the fine, and so pleading guilty to fare evasion seems unjust to me. But do you think I have a chance of winning the case? And if I attempt to would this end up costing me even more?

Many thanks, Charis.

Edited by CharisMarie
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During my Easter break (whilst at home from university) I boarded a train from Redcar to Middlesbrough, and with my railcard this journey was £2.30. Unknown to me at the time, my bank cards do not work offline, and so would not work in the train conductors card machine. I then filled out the appropriate paperwork with the intention of paying the fare by phone.

 

I rang the northern rail payment service to pay the fare the next day and was informed by the lady on the phone that they had not received the bill yet, and that she would write it in the records that I had attempted to pay the fare.

 

The next day I returned to university in London for my Summer exams, and consequently forgot all about the fare, and also received none of the reminder letters as they went to my home address in Redcar.

On returning home from university I realised the time that I had to pay the fare had passed, and had a letter stating I needed to pay an £80 fine, or that I could appeal this fine.

 

I appealed by post, and a few weeks later (when I was away for the week) northern rail rang my home number and a lady over the phone told my mum that I would receive a court date, when asked about the appeal the woman replied that they hadn't received an appeal, only to then say that she had fount it, but that the matter had gone too far now and they would take me to court.

 

So my hearing is on the 8th November, and according to the letter I can either plead guilty and pay the £100 court cost or plead not guilty to fare evasion and attend a hearing and then a trial.

 

So far my intention is to plead not guilty, as obviously I have attempted to pay the fare and to appeal the fine, and so pleading guilty to fare evasion seems unjust to me. But do you think I have a chance of winning the case? And if I attempt to would this end up costing me even more?

Many thanks, Charis.

 

You need to plead guilty unfortunately or things are going to get worse. You have committed an offence.

 

1) You failed to pay at the ticket office at Redcar; (this is an offence by itself, Railway Byelaw 18)

2) The card you tried to use was declined (it is not the TOCs concern/fault that your bank does not allow offline transactions);

3) You failed to pay the £80 penalty, which would have avoided court, even when your appeal was correctly rejected. Even still, it is completely optional whether they allow you settle out of court - as you have found out, it is a serious matter.

 

So the way I see it, you boarded a train without a valid means of payment, after failing to pay at the station, then "forgot" about the matter until it was too late.

 

I know this sounds critical and harsh, but it is how the court and TOC will see it.

 

You will probably not be prosecuted for INTENTIONALLY AVOIDING A FARE, you will be prosecuted for failing to buy a ticket prior to boarding.

 

 

(1) In any area not designated as a compulsory ticket area, no person shall enter

any train for the purpose of travelling on the railway unless he has with him a

valid ticket entitling him to travel.

 

 

Now APPROXIMATELY (!!) -

 

If you plead GUILTY, the result will be :

Court costs £100

Fine of around £200-£350

Victim surcharge of £20-£35

Compensation to Northern rail, which will be the Anytime Single rail fare

 

If you plead NOT GUILTY, but are found GUILTY by the court, the result will be:

Court Costs £100

Fine of around £300-£500

Victim surcharge of £30-50

Compensation to Northern rail, which will be the Anytime Single rail fare

Edited by firstclassx
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Hello there.

 

I know it's possible to negotiate right up to and including the day of the hearing. Have you rung them recently?

 

The guys know more than I do, but I think it might be worth a phone call to try to explain what's gone wrong since you rang and tried to pay the fare. What did you say in your appeal by letter please?

 

My best, HB

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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Thankyou for your reply.

Just to clarify, Redcar east is not a manned station/has no ticket office/has no ticket machine which you can use railcards on, there is always a ticket conductor on these trains to Middlesbrough. I didn't think it was the law to purchase a ticket before boarding on these trains?

I was also not informed about the appeal, I was not updated except to say that I was being sent a court date because they seemed to have 'found' my appeal too late?

As I did not receive any of the letter from northern rail until too late, can I somehow prove this and will it work in my favour?

Thanks again, Charis.

Edited by CharisMarie
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Hello again.

 

I'm afraid railway rules say it's the passenger's responsibility to find a member of staff to pay if they get onto a train without a ticket, rather than waiting to be asked. I think if you go down that route it could cause you more problems.

 

HB

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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The problem remains that you boarded a train without any (valid) means to pay the fare that was legally due.

 

It is essentially boarding a train without any money.

 

It is up to you to determine what debit/credit card facilities your bank issues, and the limitations these have, it is not up to the railway company to manage your financial situation.

 

The bank declined your card - because they don't trust/allow you to make transactions without it being instantly verified that you actually have the money in your account.

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Honeybee is right, you can try and reach a settlement before and up to the court date. I would suggest trying to contact the rail companies prosecution team ASAP. Phone and apologise and offer to pay their costs (could cost you £200+), if that doesn't work have a word with the prosecuted in court and offer to settle (have enough cash & cheque book with you)

 

It's going to cost you a bit so accept that but better to settle than the potential for a criminal record.

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Thankyou for your reply.

Just to clarify, Redcar east is not a manned station/has no ticket office/has no ticket machine which you can use railcards on, there is always a ticket conductor on these trains to Middlesbrough. I didn't think it was the law to purchase a ticket before boarding on these trains?

I was also not informed about the appeal, I was not updated except to say that I was being sent a court date because they seemed to have 'found' my appeal too late?

As I did not receive any of the letter from northern rail until too late, can I somehow prove this and will it work in my favour?

Thanks again, Charis.

 

 

Whilst it is correct to say that you boarded without a valid ticket and without the acceptable means to pay the fare due, the charge of offending contrary to Byelaw 18.1 (2005) has not been summonsed and would be irrelevant if what you have told us is correct, there is a fair chance that you may be able to convince Northern to settle this in my opinion.

 

It appears from your original post that you have been charged with 'intending to avoid a fare' contrary to Section 5 of the Regulation of Railways Act (1889) and given that you had failed to respond to the letter in good time, you might be pressed in Court to confirm that you had no communication channel between home & uni whilst away. The prosecutor will be able to show that you knew you had not paid and did not hold a valid ticket, failed to pay when asked on train and failed to take the opportunity to pay when given a further opportunity by post.

 

You might try to contact the prosecutor's office and ask if they will accept payment of the full fare plus all of the costs that they have incurred in bringing this matter to Court in order to resolve the case without Court action so as to 'protect your good name'. Your request should cite the fact that you have no previous offences (if that is true) and that a conviction at this stage of your life will have a disproportionate effect on your career. You will need to apologise to the company & staff concerned, express sincere remorse and give a written undertaking never to travel without a valid ticket again.

 

If successful you will need to pay any sum that they advise immediately.

 

The company is not obliged to agree, but given what you have told us and provided that there were no aggravating factors (such as arguing with rail staff or using abusive language at the time, or any other factors that you haven't mentioned ) you lose nothing by trying.

 

The Rail Company can say no, so be prepared for rejection and the likelihood of a financial penalty along the lines of that described by firstclassx, but if you are successful in trying there will be no fine and no record of conviction.

 

You might also like to write to the Court to advise that you have asked the Rail Company to consider your written request and make sure that you send both letters by recorded delivery. You must do it straight away.

 

If you persist with a 'not guilty' plea the case will be adjourned to a later date for trial and if you are found guilty at trial you will lose credit for an early acceptance of your guilt. The suggestion I have given is the best option you have of minimising risk and subsequent cost at this very late stage.

Edited by Old-CodJA
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