*** WON *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

Ok - waiting on draft bundle docs. Has ASA statement about appeal from TLT sols and screenshot from ASA.

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

PErsonally I don't think Mr Howard has an issue with Grammar and spelling at all, I think he has cleverly manipulated the wording so it doesn't quite make sense on a quick glance and if you were translating if English wasn't your first language it would just lose the negatives completely.

Well, whoever writes his letters and website text has some serious grammatical issues, lol. Nor can that person punctuate correctly.

Call me pedantic, but to me one of the markers of professionalism (and, I believe, essential in commercial applications) is accurate use of English. BPS aren't the only organisation sadly lacking in that these days ;-)

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

Here's one for you to rant about...


lol, sorry 123456 for bunging your thread up xx

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

Keeping that idea of not bunging the thread up, I'm saying nothing other than...wafflewafflewafflewaffle ;-)

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

Okay to update - we sent bundles (witness statement) and evidences for the 2nd March.

Richard, didn't.

Instead he sent this email.... obv we'll wait till we get notice of discontinuance but is sounding good.

From: "British Passport Services" <complaints@britishpassportservices.org.uk>
Date: 4 March 2015 21:16:09 GMT+6
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Admin Roles" <admin@premiermobilerecycling.co.uk>
Subject: Court Case (xxxxx)

Dear xxxxxxxxxx,


We have reviewed your defence and can see that you have secured confirmation from Her Majesty’s Passport Office that the appointment we secured for you did not exist on their systems.

As per our policies if it is ever proven that an appointment does not exist due to an error on HMPO’s part or on our part we cancel the full payment request against a customer. Even though this is just one of the nine chargeable items on the invoice and represents just £10 + VAT we do this as a matter of policy.

With that being the case we will advise the Court that this matter has been dropped and there will be no requirement for a hearing as we are no longer seeking any funds from yourself.

Thank you for providing us this proof and we apologise for any stress that these events have incurred.
Kind Regards

Amanda Kirkman
British Passport Services
Support Department
Tel: 0161 663 0072
Fax: 0203 0120 254
E-mail: mailto:enquiries@britishpassportservices.org.uk?su bject=Passport%20Question
Web: http://www.britishpassportservices.co.uk

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

This was 123456's Witness Statement

IN THE xxxxxxx COUNTY COURT Claim No: xxxxxxxxxxx

BETWEEN:

UK SERVICES & SUPPORT LTD Claimant
and
xxxxxxxxxxxx Defendant

WITNESS STATEMENT

I, xxxxxxxxx of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx will state as follows:

1. I am a xxxxxxxxxxx and the defendant in these proceedings. I make this witness statement in support of my Defence in this case.
2. The matters referred to in this witness statement are within my own knowledge, except where I have indicated otherwise. Where any matters contained in this witness statement are not within my own knowledge, I have stated the source of my information.
3. In June of 2014 I needed to make an appointment to renew my passport at the Liverpool Passport Office.
4. On 23^rd June 2014 searched online for ‘renew passport’ and clicked on the link for UK Passport Offices, which appeared to be the official HM Passport Office website.
5. I completed the online form in order to make an appointment at Liverpool Passport Office. I gave my parent’s address and telephone number on the form as I was residing overseas at the time.
6. There was a charge stated of £117.60 which I believed to be the amount required to renew my passport.
7. When I reached the payment page I was running out of time so I didn’t enter any of my payment details into the form. The form said I had 72 hours to pay.
8. At 10:51am I received an email from the Claimant which stated that my payment had been declined, which I thought was strange as I hadn’t tried to make a payment.[EXHIBIT A]
9. At 3.51pm I received an email from the Claimant confirming that they would go ahead with their service, asking for payment and providing a link to a web page with the contract. [EXHIBIT B].
10. On the 23^rd June 2014 at 5:15pm I received an email from the Claimant stating an appointment had been made for me at Liverpool Passport Office on August 4^th 2014 at 11am [EXHIBIT C]

11. The email also included a long list of products/services that the Claimant stated I had purchased. I only wanted to apply for a passport and make an appointment at Liverpool Passport Office so this struck me as odd as I had not asked for any services nor made any payment.

1. That evening I received a telephone call from my father. He told me he had received an aggressive telephone call from ‘’the Passport Office’’ requesting immediate payment otherwise the appointment at the Passport Office could not be made and my application could not proceed.
2. I was confused as I would not have thought that the HM Passport Office would act in such an aggressive manner.
3. I looked again at the UK Passport Offices website and realised I had been taken in by a ‘copycat site’. I saw on the front page there were headings such as 'Applications and Renewals' and 'Passport Application Service', along with photographs of passport bearing the Royal Arms logo. I then also realised that the website did not provide a passport application service; all it provided was an appointment that is available free of charge through the official HM Passport Office web site.
4. On the 24^th June 2014 I telephoned the Action Fraud help line and was advised that I should not pay the amount as the site was fraudulent. Please find the reference number for this call at [EXHIBIT M].
5. I then proceeded to make an appointment directly with the Liverpool Passport Office at on 4th August at 2.30pm.
6. As I had not made any payment to the Claimant and my father had been told on the telephone that without payment the appointment at the Passport Office could not be made and my application could not proceed I thought that was the end of the matter.
7. I heard nothing further from the Claimant until 6 November 2014 when I received an email stating they would take action against me should I refuse to pay. [EXHIBIT D]

1. I replied to the email stating that I would not be paying the Claimant. [EXHIBIT E]

1. Subsequently I started to receive a number of quite intimidating emails. Between November 2014 and January 2015 I received eight emails [EXHIBITS D and F - K] from the Claimant, a letter by post [EXHIBIT N] and my father received several text messages and a number of telephone calls.

1. I felt that the style of all these communications was rather aggressive and designed to frighten me into paying.

1. On the 13 November, 2014, I received an email that stated [EXHIBIT I] ‘As I have some time tomorrow morning what I'll do for you is contact the xxxxxxxxxx Citizens Advice Bureau on your behalf explaining the situation and request that they review this matter and then provide you with practical consumer advice on how best to resolve this matter.....’ I have never given permission that my details, or details of this case, could be passed to or discussed with any third party. I did not receive any contact from xxxxxxxxxxx Citizens Advice Bureau as it does not exist.

1. The Claimant has reported on their own website [EXHIBIT O] that The Operations Director of the Citizens Advice Bureau wrote to the Claimant saying that the CAB will be ignoring any requests for consumer advice that come directly from UK Service & Support and that should they continue to contact them on behalf of customers they will report this to government agencies for enforcement action.

1. On or around 23rd November, I received a letter from the Claimant [EXHIBIT N] which stated that they would be taking me to court. The letter was dated November 21^st 2014 and stated I must pay within 14 days to avoid court action.

1. This letter does not refer to the website I inadvertently used back in June, only the company’s other website, www.BritishPassportServices.co.uk.

1. The letter included a copy of a contract. I had not received a copy of this contract before receipt of this letter, all I had was a link to a web page. The contract states it is between myself and BritishPassportServices. It does not mention UK Passport Offices at all. I made the application for an appointment on the UK Passport Offices website, so there appears to be some confusion here.
   
   1. The letter contains a ‘Court Claim Form Example’ which appears to be intended purely to intimidate me into making a payment. The Claimant requests in that letter that I complete a defense[sic] form and return it to them. I did not do this.

1. The letter also included an invoice which stated there were ‘Current Overdue Invoice Charges’ of £15.50 added to the invoice. There was no breakdown of what these were. Later I discovered a ‘breakdown of charges’ page on their website which detailed charges they had added to my account. However, the Claimant has now removed these pages from the website so I am unable to produce a list. I do not believe these charges were part of any contract if one ever existed.

1. I received the claim pack in this case from the Northampton County Court Business Centre on or around 28th December 2014.
2. On or around the 29th December I called Liverpool Passport Office directly and asked if an appointment for 11am on 4 August, 2014 had ever been made. They told me that this appointment had not been made for me and there is a letter from the Passport Office to this effect [EXHIBIT Q] .

1. I submitted my initial defence on 29th December 2014. [EXHIBIT R].
2. In my defence I quoted the Advertising Standards Authority adjudication [EXHIBIT S] on the UK Services and Support website that it was misleading and ......breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Qualification) and 3.17 (Prices)... The ASA required that the site be removed or changed.

1. On 6^th January 2015 I received an email from the Claimant - who by now had seen my initial defence - stating that the Advertising Standards Authority Judgment had been ‘’thrown out’’ and was ‘’no longer active’’[EXHIBIT L] They gave a link to a page on their BritishPassportServices website that stated also said that the authority was 'slammed' for failing to reference their own research. In the same email the Claimant offered settlement at a reduced fee.

1. I then contacted the Advertising Standards Authority who sent me a letter confirming the Claimant’s email of 6th January was incorrect [EXHIBIT T] and the ruling still stands i.e. the Claimant's website - UK Passport Offices - is indeed misleading and in breach of the CAP code.

1.Whilst researching to prepare this case in early February 2015, I found that all my contract and payment details were publicly available online, as were the same details for all UK Services and Support's customers. The two websites concerned are passportdetails.co.uk and signedcontract.org.uk/u. The first website gives the 5 digit ID allocated by UK Services and Support to each customer and the second access to contract details by using the ID just acquired.

1. On the 16th February, 2015 I contacted the Information Commissioners Office to make a complaint about this breach of data protection of mine, and other peoples, personal data.

1. By using online research I also discovered a large number of other customers of UK Services & Support were receiving County Court Claims in a similar manner. There is even a list on the Claimant's website of County Court Judgements, though I cannot check the veracity of this list. Several consumer websites have long threads full of others who have been tricked by the Claimant. These include Which (Consumer's Association), MoneySavingExpert (Martin Lewis) and LegalBeagles. The last has a over 750 complaints about the Claimant.
2. I would like to reiterate the main points of this witness statement as follows: a) That the website I used - UK Services and Support - is misleading and in breach of the CAP code (see para 34) b) That no appointment at Liverpool Passport Office was made for me (para 30) c) That I did not receive a contract, only a web link (para 26) and therefore no contract in a durable medium exists d) That I have complained to the Information Commissioner's Office concerning the publicly availability of my (and others') data (see para 36) e) That the Claimant is the subject of several consumer forums concerning their business methods (para 37) f) That the Claimant uses harassment and intimidation as a means of extracting fees from consumers (para 20).

I believe that the facts in this statement are true.

Signed:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


List of Exhibits
A Email from Claimant to Defendant of 23 June, 2014
B Email from Claimant to Defendant of 23 June, 2014
C Email from Claimant to Defendant of 23 June, 2014
D Email from Claimant to Defendant of 6 November, 2014
E Email from Defendant to Claimant of 7 November, 2014
F Email from Claimant to Defendant of 6 November, 2014
G Email from Claimant to Defendant of 9 November, 2014
H Email from Claimant to Defendant of 13 November, 2014
I Email from Claimant to Defendant of 13 November, 2014
J Email from Claimant to Defendant of 21 November, 2014
K Email from Claimant to Defendant of 5 December, 2014
L Email from Claimant to Defendant of 6 January, 2015
M Action Fraud reference
N Letter from Claimant to Defendant of 21 November, 2014
O Extract from Claimant's website about the CAB
Q Letter from HM Passport Office to Defendant of 15 January, 2015
R Initial Defence submitted on 29 December, 2014
S Advertising Standards Authority Adjudication of 17 September, 2014 on UK Services and Support website
T Letter from Advertising Standards Authority to Defendant of 12 February, 2015

[Nibbler]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

Excellent.

obv we'll wait till we get notice of discontinuance but is sounding good.

Erm. yes. Would not trust them one bit.

[Crazy council]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

great news for 12345.

Lol, reading there response, i don't think there is a measure of delusionality that could fit the scale for these 2 Hopefully, this will give some of the others that are worrying a bit of relief.

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

We'll keep it in VIP till we have the formal notice of discontinuance....

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 v BritishPassportServices ( bundles 2nd march - hearing 19 May )

btw, this is the case that defended initially SOLELY on the ASA ruling, this discontinuance is based off the back of the Witness Statement.

After the defence went in the defendant received this from BPS.......

We have been provided with your Defense today from the Court.

Your entire defence is based on the ASA case of September 2014. Please kindly visit the below link that shows that this judgement was thrown out and is no longer active.

http://www.ukpassportoffices.co.uk/a...d-support-ltd/

There is now no defence left and so inevitable that judgement will be awarded in our favour.

We do not wish a county court judgement to affect your credit score nor charge you for the further court fee’s and loss of earnings charge that our agent will incur when attending court therefore please confirm whether you would like to settle this matter now at a reduced rate.

Kind Regards

Amanda Kirkman
British Passport Services
Support Department

Defence was...

[Nibbler]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

So even a somewhat spurious reason for discontinuing then, as they are too cowardly to admit the real one?

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

Looking good!

I only wish I knew this would get to this stage earlier - as the appointment allegedly made for my wife was back in July 2014, I don't think HMPO Liverpool will have a record, so we won't be able to defend on that basis.

The strongest initial point we have is the failure to send a copy of the 'contract' in durable medium, and it wouldn't surprise me if BPS turned up at court with a fabricated printed-off email or something saying they did.

Looking at that witness statement, that is a ludicrous amount of preparation. I'm an English teacher and am under incredible pressure at work at the moment to have marking etc. continuously up to date. I'm working 12 hour days and every weekend and to have to give time I haven't got over to this shower of bastards is going to absolutely do my head in. GRRRR.

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

Exactly.... still worth getting a letter from the HMPO that the appt wasn't booked, or was booked incorrectly etc .

[Amethyst]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

Looking good!

I only wish I knew this would get to this stage earlier - as the appointment allegedly made for my wife was back in July 2014, I don't think HMPO Liverpool will have a record, so we won't be able to defend on that basis.

The strongest initial point we have is the failure to send a copy of the 'contract' in durable medium, and it wouldn't surprise me if BPS turned up at court with a fabricated printed-off email or something saying they did.

Looking at that witness statement, that is a ludicrous amount of preparation. I'm an English teacher and am under incredible pressure at work at the moment to have marking etc. continuously up to date. I'm working 12 hour days and every weekend and to have to give time I haven't got over to this shower of bastards is going to absolutely do my head in. GRRRR.

Don't worry I'll help you much as I can, I did most of that WS and it should be quite easily adaptable - I have probably got most of your case info already anyway.

We should be getting your defence in shortly so I'll get that together and put it on your thread in next couple days xx We're hoping the new defences will just make him bog off straight away, you don't need to do the Witness Statement until you have a court date and directions to enter documents you intend to rely on, which won't be for at least a month after the defence goes in.

Been dealing with someone elses today whose claim is dated 12th Dec 2014, and they JUST got court date for May and Witness Statement to go in for April 9th. So you will have loads of time xxx

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** 123456 UK Passport Offices *** DISCONTINUED ****

Don't worry I'll help you much as I can, I did most of that WS and it should be quite easily adaptable - I have probably got most of your case info already anyway.

We should be getting your defence in shortly so I'll get that together and put it on your thread in next couple days xx We're hoping the new defences will just make him bog off straight away, you don't need to do the Witness Statement until you have a court date and directions to enter documents you intend to rely on, which won't be for at least a month after the defence goes in.

Been dealing with someone elses today whose claim is dated 12th Dec 2014, and they JUST got court date for May and Witness Statement to go in for April 9th. So you will have loads of time xxx

Thanks so much, Sharon. It's all appreciated