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    • Hi all, Love this site and it's no nonsense advice, have dipped in and out of the consumer forums over the years, mostly to assure myself that what I was doing was the right thing when dealing with various businesses (almost 100% success rate, thanks in part to reading and more reading here.). Anyway, the time is almost approaching where I might need to ask for some specific help and I have a couple of queries that I can't see definitively answered. Due to financial mismanagement and severe anxiety issues I stopped paying all unsecured debt in December 2018 (one slipped to the first week in Jan 2019 when the last payment was made having rechecked my bank statement from that period - all my unsecured debt direct debits were cancelled in early Jan 2019). This has left half a dozen debts;  a couple of credit cards, a bank loan, Shop Direct and some Hitachi Finance stuff having been sold on and passing the rounds through the usual suspects, Lowells, Link, PRA Group, others related to them, and then back to them again. I have somehow successfully managed to maintain radio silence and avoided anything more worrying than their begging letters.  I have blocked their phone calls and texts, bumped all emails to the spambox and had a chuckle at their desperate letters.  I've never had anybody at the door.  I have been at the same address since before I defaulted and all correspondence comes to my current home address.  I have NEVER contacted them or admitted any debt. In anticipation of them perhaps ramping up action at the last minute I've had a look at my credit report on Credit Karma (rec'd from this very place) and I see that the default dates on these range from May 2019 to November 2019. Also in preperation I've been reading, reading and reading lots here as advised. Obviously being in Scotland there are a lot fewer posts relating to these matters and it's always quite annoying when OP's do not follow up with any outcome on their cases - how rude! This has also left me a bit confused of when I am able to finally breathe easy (although cancelling all the direct debits in Jan 2019 was the biggest sigh of relief as I knew it was all going to be unmanageable and, well, default one, default all.). I've been reading that defaults should be filed 3-6 months after the missed payment but one of my larger debts was defaulted on 27th August 2019 when the last payment I made was 10th December 2018, meaning the first missed payment was 10th Jan 2019.   My query for now is - when should I infer that these debts are prescribed?  From when the payment was missed, or taking the default date plus 5 years from the credit report?   The three I have with the May date are moot anyway as either way they are gone - some letters from Lowell offering me 90% off to settle is what got me thinking these must have been near SB status, however I have one big 10k+ with a July date and another 10k+ at the end of August so I am feeling a bit anxious again, even though I know there is nothing to worry about with the begging letters.  Reading the various forums I am not sure why the OC's didn't take action against me when I read time and again the surprise that other posters haven't already been taken to court for lesser amounts - I'm also surprised I've avoided any action this long as there are plenty in this forum and sub forum who are whisked off to the court by the beggers minions after only a year or so after defaulting.  There are no CCJ/decrees listed on my credit report and I have not received any such judgements against me.  I still just regularly receive the begging emails to the spambox, the blocked phone calls and the letters from the they.   I'm also reading that there is no need in Scotland to send an LBC so what should I be looking out for to know that the time has come to engage with CCA requests etc?   I'm afraid in a fit I threw a lot of the paperwork out but I have a box of stuff I'm going to go through which may have the original letters from the OC's.   Thanks in advance for any advice.  
    • I'm at work now but promise to look in later. Can you confirm how you paid the first invoice?  It wasn't your fault if the signal was so poor and there was no alternative way to pay.  There must be a chance of reversing the charge with your bank.  There are no guarantees but Kev  https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09766749/officers  has never had the backbone to do court so far.  Not even in one case,  
    • OK  so you may not have outed yourself if you said "we". No matter either way you paid. Snotty letter I am surprised that they were so quick off the mark threatening Court. They usually take months to go that far. No doubt that as you paid the first one they decided to strike quickly and scare you into paying. Dear Chuckleheads  aka Alliance,  I am replying to your LOCs You may have caught me the first time but that is  the end. What a nasty organisation you are. You do realise that you now have now no reason to continue to pursue me after reading my appeal since you know that my car was not cloned. Any further pursuit will end up with a complaint to the ICO that you are breaching my GDPR.  Please confirm that you have removed my details from your records. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I haven't gone for a snotty letter this time as they know that you paid for your car in another car park. So using a shot across their bows .  If it doesn't deter them and they send in the debt collectors or the Court you will then be able to get more money back from them for  breachi.ng your data protection than they will get should they win in Court-and they have no chance of that as you have paid. So go in with guns blazing and they might see sense.  Although never underestimate how stupid they are. Or greedy.
    • Thank you. Such a good point. They did issue all 3 before I paid though. I only paid one because I didn’t have proof of parking that time, only for two others.    Unfortunately no proof of my appeal as it was just submitted through a form on their website and no copy was sent to me. I only have the reply. I believe I just put something like “we made the honest mistake of using the incorrect parking area on the app” and that’s it. Thanks again for your help. 
    • They are absolute chuckleheads. You paid but because you entered a different car park site also belonging to them they are pursuing you despite them knowing what you had done. It would be very obvious to everyone, including Alliance that your car could not have been in two places at the same time. Thank you for posting the PCN so quickly making it a pity that you appealed since there are so many things wrong with it that you as keeper are not liable to pay the charge. They rarely accept appeals since that would mean they lose money but they have virtually no chance of beating you in Court. Very unlikely that they will take you to Court given the circumstances. Just in case you didn't out yourself as the driver could you please post up your appeal.
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    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
      We will be recommending that people do include this adverse judgement in their bundle so that when they go to county court the judge will see both sides and see the arguments against this adverse judgement.
      Also, we will be to demonstrate to the judge that we are fair-minded and that we don't mind bringing everything to the attention of the judge even if it is against our own interests.
      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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The sub-postmasters scandal


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Why the police are not knocking on those Politicians and executives doors is beyond me.

We could do with some help from you.

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The bailiff: A 12th Century solution re-branded as Enforcement Agents for the 21st Century to seize and sell debtors goods as before Oh so Dickensian!

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The problem is the Post Office's untypical and unique status as a private prosecutor which dates back centuries. An entity that can be victim, investigator and prosecutor cannot possibly be free from conflicting interests and bias.

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  • 1 month later...

Marina Hyde has a new opinion piece on the scandal.

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

People whose lives were destroyed deserve justice. And those responsible are contriving to make sure they don’t get it, says Guardian columnist...

 

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
WWW.BBC.CO.UK

The sum is for postmasters whose wrongful convictions for theft and false accounting have now been overturned.

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • dx100uk changed the title to 86 Former sub-postmasters convictions overturned in Horizon IT scandal - Now Offered £600,000 in Compensation EACH
  • 3 weeks later...
WWW.COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM

Scotland has seen its first Post Office Horizon conviction overturned, taking the UK total to 92.

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 1 month later...

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry - Ongoing And Revealing More And More Disasters

17th November 2023

Photograph of Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry - Ongoing And Revealing More And More Disasters

The Horizon Inquiry into the Post Office and ruining of sub-postmasters lives based on false readings from the Horizon system supplied by Fujitsu.

The Inquiry is costing millions of pounds of taxpayers money. The Inquiry is looking in great detail at the biggest miscarriage of justice in British History. Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly charged with fraud. Some went to prison based on wrong information from the computer programme.

It all reads like fiction but it is a true story of how trusting computers is not they way we should go forward if we think they don't go wrong. Managers and board directors unwilling to face the truth that Fujitsu covered up and things made worse by a board accepting what they said.

(44) Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry - YouTube


For a very good series on the subject in 14 minute episodes go HERE
It is live every day this week at 1:45pm

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

This is the daily broadcast schedule for BBC Radio 4 FM
WWW.BBC.CO.UK

Listen to the latest episodes of The Great Post Office Trial on BBC Sounds

 

justice-lost-in-the-post.pdf

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Its a true horror story DX £600K insufficient for the harms caused.

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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The bailiff: A 12th Century solution re-branded as Enforcement Agents for the 21st Century to seize and sell debtors goods as before Oh so Dickensian!

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  • 2 weeks later...

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Horizon scandal: Call for all Post Office convictions to be overturned

 

A call has been made for hundreds of Post Office staff wrongly accused of theft and false accounting to all have their convictions overturned.

More than 700 Post Office managers were convicted when faulty accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their sites.

A board overseeing compensation said until all convictions were quashed, "we cannot put the scandal behind us".

The Ministry of Justice said it would respond in due course.

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

A board advising ministers on compensation for the Horizon software scandal says all should be cleared.

 

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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I see a new TV drama about this starts after New Years Day - Mr Bates vs. The Post Office - starring Toby Jones

Seems a bit premature considering this is still ongoing but maybe it'll bring it into focus and lead to better outcomes for the victims 🙏

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We could do with some help from you

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Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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following a successful set aside - compensation has been halved...

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

The firms has now set aside £244m following over estimations on the number of people who might apply.

dx

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please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mr Bates vs Post Office

hotly-anticipated drama based on real life events where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a faulty IT system.

 

UK.NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Mr Bates vs Post Office's Monica Dolan was visibly upset as she sat beside real-life subpostmaster Jo Hamilton who she plays in the drama.

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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The excellent ITV series has really stirred up public anger over this, and rightly so in my view. It seems that 50 potential new victims have come forward since it was aired.

There's a petition that's been signed by over 600,000 people as at this morning, calling for Paula Vennells' CBE to be withdrawn.

And the Met are investigating the Post Office for potential fraud. This relates to the money that they made postmasters pay even though they knew that the Horizon system had multiple bugs.

NEWS.SKY.COM

Former subpostmasters and subpostmistresses were held liable by the Post Office for financial discrepancies thrown up by its computerised...

 

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Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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Dan Neidle, tax campaigner, explains the problems with the compensation scheme. Victims were also being made to pay tax on the sums awarded but I believe that was changed.

WWW.TAXPOLICY.ORG.UK

I keep going back to this Daily Mail story in which a postmaster who was financially ruined received only £8,000 compensation. How could that...

 

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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Private Eye, who have been investigating this for years, along with Computer Weekly, have released a special report as a pdf.

WWW.PRIVATE-EYE.CO.UK

CONCEIVED in 1996 as one of the first private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, between the Post Office and the Benefits Agency on the...

 

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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Yes I think that was referred to in the Times as well. In the second article I think it was about the police carrying out their own investigation into the post office. Questions about whether it would simply be the post office which might be prosecuted or whether individuals would be prosecuted.
It also said very clearly that two employees or ex-employees of Fujitsu were also under investigation by the police.

I have to say that all this nonsense about Paula Vennels surrendering her CBE is ridiculous and shortsighted.
If she is allowed to surrender her CBE then she will attract praise for her "noble gesture". She should not be allowed to fall on her sword. It is clear that her CBE should be stripped from her before she has an opportunity eventually to do it of her own back.

I suppose I mainly have the TV series to go on but it is pretty obvious that the email which she sent asking the question whether or not Horizon could be controlled remotely and then explaining that she needed to be able to say that it could not be – was effectively asking to be shielded and simply to give the message that whatever she was told she would repeat but then she felt that she would be to do it with a clean conscience.

She obviously had her own thoughts about it – maybe even inside knowledge but we will probably never know. She walked away with £4 .5 million.

She should be stripped of the CBE and made to return the money.

She should also be made to suffer the ignominy of a criminal investigation into her behaviour.


Once again, simply from the documentary it seems to me that Angela van den Bogerd had a significant hand in it. I understand that she was in charge and a very important figure in the network management. She had been there for 33 years – well before Paula Vennels joined.

And it seems that from her testimony, she was well aware that the system could be controlled remotely but it was simply that she had never been asked the right question.

However, at that level I think one has a duty to disclose information which one knows is going to be relevant and it seems that she stood by silent was hundreds of people were prosecuted, ruined, and some died.

 

image.png

Where is she now?

https://twitter.com/hqqsk2kkfg

 

image.png

And where is she?

Do they still have any friends? Do their children even talk to them?

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BF, one of the petitions is addressed to Sir Chris Wormald in the Cabinet Office, as Chair of the Forfeiture Committee, asking him to strip PV of her gong. About 50,000 more people have signed so far today.

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Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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A All the execs and Ed davey should at least all be questioned under caution by the MET, as to Alan bates and Sue Sercombe, between 2002 and until the Woolshop closed, I used to deliver there when covering holidays for one of the home delivery Couriers I managed, Alan Bates told me all about the PO shenanigans, and it was obvious that Horizon was seriously borked. Aled Job has written a book about an Anglesey Postmaster who wound up in jail

the stamp of innocence by  Aled Gwyn Job its on Amazon apparently

 

We could do with some help from you.

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The bailiff: A 12th Century solution re-branded as Enforcement Agents for the 21st Century to seize and sell debtors goods as before Oh so Dickensian!

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Gareth Jenkins, Fujitsu's 'expert' witness in lots of the earlier prosecutions, has been under investigation for 3 years for perjury. The idea of interviewing Ed Davey under caution is just silly. They should go after the real culprits. 

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Likely all the Managers at some point must have been involved. Davey was a Minister in charge he should have his collar felt.

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

If you want advice on your thread please PM me a link to your thread

The bailiff: A 12th Century solution re-branded as Enforcement Agents for the 21st Century to seize and sell debtors goods as before Oh so Dickensian!

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