Restons Solicitors

[Baby Mum]

Thank you so so much!
i will look for anything else from them including original particulars of the claim when I am at home (at work now) and will post them ASAP.

[Baby Mum]

[Baby Mum]

Very strange, just got this in the post

[Baby Mum]

It says they can not commence a legal action against my account but they already did it!

[Baby Mum]

[Baby Mum]

[Baby Mum]

Sorry, are the images I posted fuzzy?
They were okay when I was posting but now I can't see them properly.

[MIKE770]

you need to PDF them to be seen

[Amethyst]

They've just come up a bit small, probably they were too big a file, and you've reduced the image size to reduce file size... you can email me them if you like ( original pics ) - admin@legalbeagles.info - and I'll post up for you.

[Baby Mum]

Thank you so much, Amethyst, I have emailed.

[Amethyst]

Got it - thank you. It's what I thought it was so that's good

I'll add that latest letter into the WS.

[Amethyst]

Claim N

Claim No. xxxxxxxxx
IN THE CLERKENWELL & SHOREDITCH COUNTY COURT
B E T W E E N: -
MFS PORTFOLIO LTD
Claimant
and

BABYMUM
Defendant
____________________________________________
WITNESS STATEMENT
_____________________________________________
I, BabyMum, of *****address********* will state as follows;

1. I am the Defendant in these proceedings. I make this witness statement in support of my defence in this case and in opposition to the Claimants application to lift the stay and for summary judgment in the claim. I am a litigant in person.
2. The claim is denied and it is my contention that the case is wholly unsuitable for Summary Judgment.
   1. The Claimant is required to prove legal assignment of the account by Bank of Scotland to themselves pursuant to the Law of Property Act 1925.
   2. The Claimant is required to comply with a formal request made pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
   3. The Claimant is required to provide evidence that a compliant Default Notice was served.

1. The claim was brought against me in June 2018. I received the claim form on 16^th June 2018.

1. The claimant's particulars of claim stated only

“The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s) under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Bank of Scotland dated on or about Feb 22 2002 and assigned to the Claimant on Jun 29 2015”

1. The claimant is MFS Portfolio and Restons Solicitors are acting for them in the case.
2. The Claimant does not specify the type of account on which the claim is based. I have had various products with Bank of Scotland and its companies over the years.
3. Later information received from the Claimant's Solicitors, Restons, and from Cabot Financial indicates that the �contract' relied on is a regulated Consumer Credit Agreement for a Credit Card.

1. I have not received any letters from MFS Portfolio Ltd either before or since issuance of the claim.

1. It is denied that MFS Portfolio Ltd have the rights to bring this claim.

1. I requested information from the Claimant and their Solicitors ( EXHIBIT X) as soon as I received the claim. I requested a breakdown of the debt to show how the sum claimed had arisen, a copy of the agreement, any notice of assignment or default notice.

1. I received no information from the Claimant or their Solicitors and they did not agree an extension of the deadline for filing my defence, therefore I filed my limited defence on the 4^th June 2018.

1. My defence was limited as at that time I did not recognise the claimant ( MFS Portfolio ) and due to the limited and vague particulars of claim ( Paragraph 4 above), and there was a lack of information about the alleged debt. I recognise that the court may wish me to amend my defence at this stage, however I ask that the costs of any such application required are ordered against the Claimant.

1. My defence as filed is:

“I dispute the claim because I do not owe the claimant money.
No proof of break down of this allegedly owned money has been given to me”

1. Beyond an acknowledgement of receipt received from the Northampton County Court Business Centre I heard nothing further from the court or the Clamant until 27 November 2018, over 5 months after the claim had been issued.

1. I received nothing from the Claimant until they made their application to the court to lift the stay and request summary judgment in November 2019, over a year since their previous communication and 18 months since they issued their claim.

1. I acknowledge that the Claimant have now provided me with a number of documents which they allege evidence their case.

1. The Claimant alleges to have sent me a Notice of Assignment on 24^th July 2015. I did not receive this notice of assignment.

1. The Claimant exhibits the alleged Notice of Assignment to their witness statement ( Paragraph 9(iii) Exhibit “GW2” ). This is a letter from �Cabot Financial' and states “The Cabot Credit Management Group has recently bought the account you held with Bank of Scotland and the balance is now owed to us”. There is no mention of the Claimant ( MFS Portfolio Ltd ) in this ( or any other ) Letter.

1. The Claimant further exhibits a copy of the Notice of Assignment from “Bank of Scotland” dated 23^rd July 2015 which states “ We are writing to notify you that the Bank of Scotland has assigned all of its respective rights, title and interest in respect of the above referenced account (including the outstanding balance) to the Cabot Credit Management Group, effective 26/03/2015”

1. This letter further states that payments will be forwarded to Cabot Financial, part of the Cabot Credit Management Group, and that Cabot Financial is now the data controller of my Personal Data contained in the records of this account.

1. There is absolutely no mention in any of the documents disclosed of MFS Portfolio, the Claimant in this case.

1. There is no notice of assignment from Cabot Financial or from Bank of Scotland assigning the account, or my data, to MFS Portfolio.

1. The Claimant's Particulars of claim state “assigned to the Claimant on Jun 29 2015” which is a different date to that stated in the Claimant's Witness Statement and on the alleged Notice of Assignment. Was the account further assigned to MFS Portfolio Ltd after assignment from Bank of Scotland to Cabot ?

1. The Claimant also exhibits a �Statement of Account' dated 11^th April 2016. I have not previously seen this statement, however this states that the Lender is “Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited”. A further statement exhibited dated 24^th June 2018 also states the Lender as “Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited”.

1. Throughout the Claimant's documentation there is no mention of MFS Portfolio Ltd.

1. It is disputed that MFS Portfolio have been assigned any rights, title or interest in respect of the account on which their claim is based and the Claimant is put to strict proof of the same.

1. MFS Portfolio Ltd is an entirely separate entity to Cabot Credit Management, Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited and Cabot Financial.

1. In the Claimant's Witness Statement dated 5^th November 2019 it is stated “I also make this Witness Statement from information provided to me by MFS Portfolio Limited. The Claimant has appointed Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited as the primary managing agent and servicer of the account held by the Defendant, and Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited continues to manage and service that account in that capacity”
2. To summarise – all correspondence regarding the account is from Cabot Credit Management Ltd, Cabot Financial Ltd and Cabot Financial (Europe) Ltd. Other than the court claim and Witness Statement there has been no mention of MFS Portfolio, an entirely separate legal entity, that is not authorised for collection of Consumer Credit Debt since April 2014. The Claimant is put to strict proof as to the assignment of the account to MFS Portfolio Ltd by Bank of Scotland and strict proof that the Claimant is so authorised to bring this claim.

1. On or around 21^st November 2018 I received documents from Restons Solicitors.

1. The documents included an alleged screenshot of a Bank of Scotland internal computer system which the Claimant alleges is evidence that a Default Notice was sent to me on 12^th June 2008. No Default Notice was received and no copy of the alleged Default Notice has been provided.

1. A Default Notice is required under s 87 Consumer Credit Act 1974. It is denied that Bank of Scotland served any Default notice on me pursuant to s87 Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant is required to prove that a compliant Default Notice was served upon a debtor before they are able to call in any debt (. The Claimant is required to prove that the any Default notice relied upon complied with the requirements of s88(4A) Consumer Credit Act 1974 and that the notice was in the prescribed form as required by The Consumer Credit Enforcement Default and Termination Notice Regulations 1983.

1. In Doyle v PRA Group (UK) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 12 it was found found that service of a default notice was more than a procedural requirement for recovery; it was necessary in order to found the cause of action. The judgment confirmed that absence of a valid default notice gave the debtor a complete defence. CCA s87 provided that without a default notice there was no right to demand accelerated payment of the balance. It therefore did not merely impose a procedural requirement but qualified the creditor's substantive legal rights.

1. On the XXXX November 2019 in order to try and obtain full information the Defendant made a request for information to the Claimant ( EXHIBIT X ) The request was made pursuant to s78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 to ascertain that the agreement, which the Claimant was demanding payment under and to obtain further information about the terms of the contract.

1. On the xxxxx I received a letter from "Cabot Financial" which stated "unfortunately we do not have the relevant information on file, so we will be requesting a copy of the agreement and terms and conditions from your original lender, as well as a statement of your account"

1. The letter goes on to state "this account will remain on your credit file for six years from the date the default was registered", which seems a strange thing to say considering the Claimant alleges the account was Defaulted in 2008 and any default registered on the credit file would have been removed in 2014.

1. I received a further letter from Cabot Financial dated 8^th December 2019 ( EXHIBIT X ) stating “your Credit Agreement is unenforceable until we are able to reply to your request. This means we are not permitted to obtain a County Court Judgment or a Warrant for Diligence against you in Court”
2. The letter further states “While we are unable to commence legal action against your account we are able to ask you to repay this amount”
3. I find this confusing as legal action was commenced in June 2018.
4. On the xxx November 2018, in response a request for information referred to in paragraph X above, the Claimant disclosed a copy of an application form which it is alleged the Defendant completed. A copy of the document supplied is annexed to these pleadings marked exhibit X.
5. The copy the Claimant has supplied is not the complete credit agreement and does not include a copy of any terms referred to within it. The Claimant has thus far failed to provide the complete set of terms that would have been in force at the time the agreement was signed.
6. The Application form is illegible however does not appear to contain the prescribed terms or be complete as required, accordingly the Claimant has failed to comply with s78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 and by virtue of s78(6) Consumer Credit Act 1974 cannot enforce the agreement.
7. The Defendant has not yet been able to examine the terms and conditions which were in force at the time that the agreement was signed and therefore reserves the right to amend these pleadings to address any breaches that are identified if such terms and conditions are disclosed by the Claimant. The amendment will be due to the lack of disclosure by the Claimant and the failure to respond to the s78 CCA 1974 request correctly and the Defendant therefore also reserves the right to claim the cost of such amendments from the Claimant.
8. In the premise that the disclosures and pleadings are inadequate, the Defendant is faced with difficulty in pleading further
9. For the avoidance of doubt the Defendant requires the Claimant to plead effectively and disclose the complete documents upon which the Claim is based. In the event the Claimant fails to re-plead, then the Defendant reserves the right to apply for whatever orders it deems fit including an order striking the Claim out.

I believe the facts stated in this witness statement to be true.

Signed ___________________________
Dated 16th December 2019


EXHIBITS ATTACHED

[Amethyst]

Ignoring the numbering as it all cocked up, this is a starting point, it will of course need exhibits attaching, fact checking and re-ordering... it will still need a fair bit of work tbh and finishing off but it is a start.

Main things then...

MFS portfolio.... who are they? no letters from them, no mention of them in any documents, how are they the claimant when they do not own the debt, are not FCA authorised etc etc - ie. They need to evidence legal assignment of the debt by either BOS or Cabot TO MFS Portfolio.

CCA - application form - illegible and incomplete provided, then a CCA request sent to try get fuller info, and response from Cabot saying unenforceable...

Default - no default notice copy sent - dispute default notice ever received.

[Baby Mum]

Oh my God, Amethyst, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I am extremely grateful.

[Baby Mum]

I don't understand so many things myself.
Why MFS Portfolio is the claimant while Cabot is replying completely different things.
It would seem as though MFS Portfolio has taken the information from somewhere to claim the money from me. Restons are also involved in the same way. I am really struggling to understand.
Meanwhile, I am going to submit the witness statement.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!