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I'm assisting a company in Peterborough who found my topic on Direct Digital where the case went to court and I slapped them with a real hefty £3615.24 ( or thereabouts) costs award.
The director of the company I'm assisting has had a sickening experience and eventually lost a case by default with associated Bailiff fees and other costs. As in my own situation the advertising contract copy was never left at the time of the sale and was only seen as part of the bundle that Multimedia presented to the court, copied to the respondent.
I was contacted and asked if I could assist as he needed someone with experience of Multimedia's tactics and how to fight back against them.
Appealing was out of the question due to time-out so this has to be handled differently.
I told him to urgently check his signature on the contract. Sure enough it was forged and easily provable by comparing his signature on other documents such as passport etc.
I am advising him to take to county court as a monetary claim for the amount he lost, plus all other expenses such as bailiff fees etc, and to also add on a couple of thousand for damages just as I did myself.
Now, and this is the important bit, I need to give accurate ways of doing this so it doesn't get cocked up along the way.
I have already told him to write to Multimedia referring to his case and that he wasn't left a copy of the contract at the time of the sale. However since he now has a copy and there's an obvious fraud by forgery of signature, to notify them at this stage that the discovery of a forged signature is a compelling reason to lay a court claim for the total costs etc as above, and to add the couple of thousand for the distress and damage to reputation. I advised that he should give them 10 working days to make a payment of the amount, otherwise he would have no hesitation to make a court claim and see how they explain ongoing false signature issues to a judge.
I would really love to see Multimedia being taken through criminal court proceedings but this has the associated risks and could prove extremely expensive.
Is my advice spot on right now? I know that Multimedia doesn't actually owe any money so although it's a money claim it would be based on a reasonable calculation of the costs the claimant would have suffered plus the damages award.
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The email I sent the director is as follows with some bits left for him to fill in.
Dear Mr Parkin,
As you are aware the original contract copy was not left with me, as is supposed to happen and failure of such constitutes a breach in itself, as well as being unconscionable behaviour as indicated by the Federal Court of Australia for similar conduct where Multimedia International was fined $230,000 AUS.
Since you took court action against me here in the UK I was sent a copy of the contract in your court documents which was required by law, and was supposed evidence of the terms and conditions of the contract itself. However, I have since availed myself of legal assistance and the immediate thing that was pointed out was that the signature that purports to be mine has actually been forged or fraudulently inserted by another person. This is so easily verified by a simple comparison with things that have my signature on them prior to your contract. I mean by that, my driving license, my passport and many other company documents.
I am aware of other instances of forged signatures where the courts have thrown out your claim. I mean specifically Norma and June Fashions Ltd, where the respondent actually won the case and came away with a hefty £3615.24 in costs and damages. Another case heard in Blackpool a couple of weeks earlier was also dismissed when the judge was alerted to the fact the signature was forged.
It appears that your company is still using forgery and that brings me to the inevitable question.
What do you intend to do to rectify this? I have suffered costs of all sorts (INSERT THE ACTUAL AMOUNTS AND TO WHOM, IE BAILIFF FEES, COURT COSTS AND ANYTHING ELSE}
Quite apart from that my whole family have suffered stress and depression over this incident for which I would request a court to make a compensatory award of no less than 2 thousand pounds. That brings the total amount to .............
I will ask for that total amount when the case goes to court and be delighted to see how your company can explain ongoing forged signature issues with signed Witness Statements from those who had their cases dismissed for that exact reason.
If this amount is not paid within 10 working days from this date 24/3/2023, I will raise a case against you and look forward to alerting other advertisers who may have suffered a similar fate and are showing on the same screens as my own advert.
Just so that you cannot plead non receipt of this email I must inform you that my mail is tracked and I am alerted each and every time the mail is opened or forwarded.. (YOU MUST HAVE MAILCHIMP ENABLED FOR THIS)
The director of the company I'm assisting has had a sickening experience and eventually lost a case by default with associated Bailiff fees and other costs. As in my own situation the advertising contract copy was never left at the time of the sale and was only seen as part of the bundle that Multimedia presented to the court, copied to the respondent.
I was contacted and asked if I could assist as he needed someone with experience of Multimedia's tactics and how to fight back against them.
Appealing was out of the question due to time-out so this has to be handled differently.
I told him to urgently check his signature on the contract. Sure enough it was forged and easily provable by comparing his signature on other documents such as passport etc.
I am advising him to take to county court as a monetary claim for the amount he lost, plus all other expenses such as bailiff fees etc, and to also add on a couple of thousand for damages just as I did myself.
Now, and this is the important bit, I need to give accurate ways of doing this so it doesn't get cocked up along the way.
I have already told him to write to Multimedia referring to his case and that he wasn't left a copy of the contract at the time of the sale. However since he now has a copy and there's an obvious fraud by forgery of signature, to notify them at this stage that the discovery of a forged signature is a compelling reason to lay a court claim for the total costs etc as above, and to add the couple of thousand for the distress and damage to reputation. I advised that he should give them 10 working days to make a payment of the amount, otherwise he would have no hesitation to make a court claim and see how they explain ongoing false signature issues to a judge.
I would really love to see Multimedia being taken through criminal court proceedings but this has the associated risks and could prove extremely expensive.
Is my advice spot on right now? I know that Multimedia doesn't actually owe any money so although it's a money claim it would be based on a reasonable calculation of the costs the claimant would have suffered plus the damages award.
-----------------------------------------------
The email I sent the director is as follows with some bits left for him to fill in.
Dear Mr Parkin,
As you are aware the original contract copy was not left with me, as is supposed to happen and failure of such constitutes a breach in itself, as well as being unconscionable behaviour as indicated by the Federal Court of Australia for similar conduct where Multimedia International was fined $230,000 AUS.
Since you took court action against me here in the UK I was sent a copy of the contract in your court documents which was required by law, and was supposed evidence of the terms and conditions of the contract itself. However, I have since availed myself of legal assistance and the immediate thing that was pointed out was that the signature that purports to be mine has actually been forged or fraudulently inserted by another person. This is so easily verified by a simple comparison with things that have my signature on them prior to your contract. I mean by that, my driving license, my passport and many other company documents.
I am aware of other instances of forged signatures where the courts have thrown out your claim. I mean specifically Norma and June Fashions Ltd, where the respondent actually won the case and came away with a hefty £3615.24 in costs and damages. Another case heard in Blackpool a couple of weeks earlier was also dismissed when the judge was alerted to the fact the signature was forged.
It appears that your company is still using forgery and that brings me to the inevitable question.
What do you intend to do to rectify this? I have suffered costs of all sorts (INSERT THE ACTUAL AMOUNTS AND TO WHOM, IE BAILIFF FEES, COURT COSTS AND ANYTHING ELSE}
Quite apart from that my whole family have suffered stress and depression over this incident for which I would request a court to make a compensatory award of no less than 2 thousand pounds. That brings the total amount to .............
I will ask for that total amount when the case goes to court and be delighted to see how your company can explain ongoing forged signature issues with signed Witness Statements from those who had their cases dismissed for that exact reason.
If this amount is not paid within 10 working days from this date 24/3/2023, I will raise a case against you and look forward to alerting other advertisers who may have suffered a similar fate and are showing on the same screens as my own advert.
Just so that you cannot plead non receipt of this email I must inform you that my mail is tracked and I am alerted each and every time the mail is opened or forwarded.. (YOU MUST HAVE MAILCHIMP ENABLED FOR THIS)
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