**DISCONTINUED*** didactosaurus v BPS ~**DISCONTINUED**

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

Right that should fit on the moneyclaim online website for submission. Remember this is the defence, all the dates of letters and texts etc will go in the Witness Statement as will the I did xxxxxxxx on xx/xx/xxxx stuff which won't be required for a couple of weeks at least.

Have a read through and make sure it scans right with your case.

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

That is fantastic work, Sharon. Thanks so much :-)

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

Can you just confirm you have submitted your defence now please.

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

WORK IN PROGRESS - witness statement


IN THE xxxxxxxxxxxx COUNTY COURT

CLAIM No: XXXXXX

BETWEEN

UK Services & Support Ltd

CLAIMANT

And

DIDACTOSAURUS

DEFENDANT

_______________________________________________
WITNESS STATEMENT
_______________________________________________

1. I, xxx NAME xxx of xxxxxxx ADDRESS xxxxxx will state as follows:

2. I am a xxxxxxxxxxx and the defendant in these proceedings. I make this witness statement in support of my Defence in this case.

3. 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.

4. I am a litigant in person.

5. On 18^th June 2014 I wanted to renew my passport and searched online to find out how to do this. I selected the British Passport Service and clicked a large button marked 'RENEW PASSPORT' which took me to an online form. I completed the form to renew my passport in the belief that British Passport Services was part of, or otherwise an agent of, Her Majesty’s Passport Office. I believed that the indicated cost of £117.60 covered the cost of renewing my UK passport and that the form I completed was my application to renew my passport.

6. Following completion of the form I left the website. I was confused that there did not appear to be any facility to make the payment.

6. At around I received a text message from 'Passport' stating xxxxxxxxxx [EXHIBIT A]

7. At around xxxxx I received 3 emails from British Passport Services.
a) Stated that they would commence work on the process.[EXHIBIT X]
b) Stated that Payment had been Declined[EXHIBIT X]
c) Stated that Payment was required Immediately.[EXHIBIT X]

8. At around xxxxx I telephone British Passport Services on the number given in their emails ' xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx' I spoke to a Mr Jeff Ramsay. I queried the emails and text I had received with Mr Ramsay and he assured me all was in order and I was required to pay within 72 hours of completing the form.

9. Following this conversation I felt uneasy and did some further research into the process for renewing a passport and discovered that British Passport Services were not the official HM Passport Office, nor an agent of such. I discovered that the fee requested of £117.60 was not for the renewal of my passport as I had been led to believe but was a service fee for booking an appointment, and a number of pointless other services which I did not request nor wish to have.[EXHIBIT X]

10. I strongly believe I was misled and deceived into understanding that I was dealing with the official HM Passport Office's service, contrary to the Misrepresentation Act 1967.

11. At around xxxxxx I tried to telephone British Passport Services again in order to cancel. There was no response after numerous attempts. I then sent an email [EXHIBIT X] to complaints@britishpassportservices.co.uk, explaining that I wished to cancel any services, that I had been misled into using their website and that they should remove all of my personal data from their systems.

12. I received no response however I did not get any notification that my email had not been delivered. Therefore I considered that I had cancelled and believe that by not accepting my cancellation British Passport Services breached Regulation 29 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and as such I had no obligation under the alleged contract as set out by Regulation 33.

13. On 19th June 2014 I telephoned the Liverpool Passport Office on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to make an appointment in order to go and renew my passport in person. I felt this was safer than using an online service following my experience with British Passport Services.

14. The HM Passport Office sent me a text confirmation of my appointment made for 9th July 2014 appointment reference 87074410 [EXHIBIT X]

15. The message arrived on my mobile phone in the same message thread as previous messages from British Passport Service. This confused me at the time but I have since researched and discovered that the sender is able to name SMS messages. SMS messages from HM Passport Office and British Passport Services were both named as 'Passport'. I believe this demonstrates the attempt to mislead customers into thinking they are receiving messages from the HM Passport Office.


16. On the 20th June 2014 I received a SMS text message from British Passport Services requesting payment [EXHIBIT X] As I had cancelled by email I ignored the message and did not respond.

17. On the 23rd June 2014 I received a SMS text message from British Passport Services stating that if I wished to cancel I should dial a number and quote a cancellation code [EXHIBIT X] I ignored the message and did not respond.

18. On the 23rd June 2014 I received an email from British Passport Services [EXHIBIT X] stating an appointment had been made at Liverpool Passport Office on the 11th July 2014.

19. On 23rd June 2014 received a text [EXHIBIT X] which I am uncertain whether it came from the HM Passport Office or British Passport Services, as it was worded exactly the same, and under the name 'Passport' and stated an appointment had been made on the 11th July 2014. I did not respond to the message.

20. On 7th July 2014 I received an appointment reminder by SMS text message from 'Passport' for the appointment on the 9th July 2014.

21. On 9th July 2014 I attended Liverpool Passport Office and renewed my passport.

22. At the Passport Office I spoke to a Passport advisor who stated they knew about websites such as BritishPassportServices and said they had had many very unhappy customers who had paid third party websites and then turned up only to be told that they had not paid for their passport but had paid a third party site just to book an appointment (which is free) and had had to pay for their passports. This had caused many problems for HM Passport Office. The advisor gave me a piece of paper with information on about how to avoid such websites. I asked if any other appointments had been made for me and the advisor said not according to the system.

21. Between the 8th and 10th July I received emails from British Passport Services referring to an appointment on 11th July 2014. These emails contained directions to the Passport Office in Liverpool and informed me that an appointment had been made for me to speak to a 'Passport Advice Consultant' on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx telephone number.

22. On the 11th July 2014 I received a text message from British Passport Services 'reminding' me about an appointment. I ignored the message.

23. I did not hear anything further for 4 months. On 16th November 2014 I received an email from British Passport Services, signed from Mr Charles Mercer.
The subject of the email was 'Formal Request for Solicitors Details GB/Z346238':[EXHIBIT X] and stated 'I understand that you are about to or have already commissioned solicitors to look into this matter, therefore please kindly confirm (1) the firm that you have instructed, (2) the name of the solicitor representing you and (3) their contact email and phone number so that we can begin liaising with them.' 'We are somewhat confused as to why you are threatening legal action against us and why you believe that the promised fee is not due for the work we have done on your account. You seem to be claiming that we have misrepresented ourselves in some manner and presumably believe that we are in breach of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 however this is by no means the case. A misrepresentation claim would hinge on us having made a false statement of fact. We did not do this. We make it clear on our website, contract and in all communication with consumers who we are, that we are not Her Majesty's Passport Office and that fee's paid to us are separate to passport fee's [sic].'

24. The email referred to a contract that British Passport Services alleged I had made with them. They gave me a link within the email: QUOTE LINK . It should be noted that this document is not secured by a password, nor is it stored on a secure https:// location. This is in contravention to all requirements of the Data Protection Act and represents a serious risk of my personal data being misappropriated. This was the first time I had seen any contract.

Until then I had not received a copy any contract, only a link to it on a web page. By not providing me with the contract in a durable medium at the point that the alleged contract was struck the claimant has breached Regulation 5, Regulation 16(1) and 16 (4) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

25. There was no mention of any amount alleged to be owed within the email.

24. The email concerned me as I had not communicated with BritishPassportServices in any way since sending my email to complaints@britishpassportservices.co.uk cancelling any services on 18th June 2014. I found the tone of the email intimidatory and appeared to be designed to scare me into making payment. I did not respond to the email.

25. On the 18th December 2014 I received a SMS text message from British Passport Services [EXHIBIT X] which stated 'We have just sent you an important letter' and demanded payment of £117.60.

26. On xxx December 2014 I received a Letter by post [EXHIBIT X] from Amanda Kirkman, British Passport Services. A different link was given in the letter to access the alleged contract. This link was to a website called signedcontract.org.uk and I found that all my personal data, contract and payment details were publicly available online, as were those for all UK Services and Support's customers, without any controls over who could gain access to them. I had not consented to that personal data being made freely accessible through the internet and as such the claimant has breached the First, Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Data Protection Principles, as set out in s.4 and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

27: On 9th January 2015 I received an SMS Text message [EXHIBIT X] from BritishPassportServices referring to an important email sent 'regarding possible Court Proceedings to recover the £117.60 that you continue to refuse to pay us.' No email was received.

28: On the 12th January 2015 I received a letter sent by Recorded delivery from BritishPassportServices[EXHIBIT X] signed by Charles Mercer. 'Formal Notice of Intended Court Action Pre-Action Conduct Letter'. The letter stated that I owed £117.60 and contained a lot of material which appeared to be designed to intimidate me into making payment. The letter included a copy of an invoice [EXHIBIT X] which stated an amount of £133.10 was due.

29: On the 23rd January 2015 I received an Email from Charles Mercer, BritishPassportService requesting payment of £144.60.

30. On the 23rd January 2014 I received a SMS text message which stated - 'Final chance' to pay before court action, requesting payment of £139.10

31. I was beginning to feel concerned as to the amount of contact I was receiving from the company, and with the threats of court action decided to seek legal advice.

23rd JAN = inbound email

32. I found that another of the Claimant’s websites ‘UK Passport Offices’ was the subject of an Advertising Standards Authority adjudication (ref A14-273276) [EXHIBIT I] which found that the website 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. It has not been removed or materially changed.

33. That website is still live and at the time of the adjudication looked exactly the same as the website BritishPassportServices. Although the ASA Adjudication is under appeal by the claimant I have confirmation from the ASA that the ruling still stands [EXHIBIT J]

34: I was advised to write to BritishPassportServices to set out my objections to their requests for payment and constant contact. I sent a letter [EXHIBIT X] by recorded delivery on 29th January 2015 to BritishPassportServices registered office as given on their correspondence ( Suite 36, 88-90 Hatton Garden, London
EC1N 8PQ) The Letter was returned to me by the Royal Mail marked 'No longer at this address'
.
35. I copied my letter to BritishPassportServices by email at complaints@britishpassportservices.co.uk on xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 29th JAN = inbound email

30th JAN = inbound email

36. On 2nd February 2015 I received an email [EXHIBIT X] from Amanda Kirkman, BritishPassportServices which stated 'as you have chosen to escalate matters to this point' it will be passed to 'Charles Mercer'.

2nd Feb = inbound email x 2

37. As previous emails and letters had been addressed from Charles Mercer I had assumed he was the gentleman already dealing with my complaint. Formal reply promised by email and post by 5th February 2015.

38. On 3rd February 2015 I recieved an email [EXHIBIT X] from BritishPassportServices 'Support Department' which stated 'You will receive a letter in the post with out [sic] response to your letter' and also 'In regards to the paragraph bellow [sic] I just want to mention that there is no accusation from ASA that www.britishpassportservices.co.uk is misleading. They know about it and they agreed that it is compliant with their rules.'

39: Please see [EXHIBIT X] A letter from the Advertising Standards Authority which states xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

40. On 3rd February 2015 I also received a SMS text message[EXHIBIT X] promising a reply by 5th February 2015.

41. On 4th February 2015 I recieved an email [EXHIBIT X]from Charles Mercer, BritishPassportServices which stated 'Mrs Kirkman has forwarded your Letter Before Claim letter which I have passed onto my colleagues for investigation and review. As you may have heard we are responsible for ensuring that the company abides by all UK and EU legislation and so should there have been any breach of these laws or should the contract have been breached in anyway then I can assure you that the £174.60 fee will be returned to you in full. Should it be determined that a refund should be made would you prefer to receive on your card, as a cheque or credited to your bank account?'

42. I found the content of that email confusing as
a) I had not send a Letter before Claim, I had responded to their Letter before Action.
b ) no payment had ever been made by myself to BritishPassportServices and I was not requesting a refund.
c ) the amount given differed to any amount previously given.

43. 4th Feb = inbound email I responded by Email to Charles Mercer [EXHIBIT X] to point out the inconsistencies in his email, and requested that BritishPassportServices cease pursuit of this matter and confirm all my personal data was removed from their systems.

44. On 6th February 2015 I received an email [EXHIBIT X] from Amanda Kirkman, BritishPassportServices. This was a lengthy email which stated the contract cannot be cancelled and referring to 'The £207.60 covers nine items in the contract.' This is yet another change in the amount requested. I also do not know what these 'nine items' are.

45. On 6th February 2015 I received a further lengthy email [EXHIBIT X] acknowledging that my initial cancellation email sent on 18th June 2014 was received. The email stated that an email was sent in reply (which I had not received) informing me that the only way to cancel was by telephone or writing to the Head Office; the email also confirmed that work had not yet begun when BritishPassportServices received my cancellation email.

46: By way of clarification, the only reference I have had of having to cancel by telephone was received by SMS text message on 23rd June 2014. Five days after the my email cancelling any service.

47: The email included a link to a 'breakdown of charges' - I did not click on the link at the time as I did not trust it to be safe. I have since visited this link and downloaded the PDF which was accessible publicly on the internet. [EXHIBIT X]

48: I received a further email from Charles Mercer stating a '40 minute appointment' had been arranged 'tomorrow' (which would be a Saturday, yet BPS' office hours are stated as Monday-Friday) with Jeff Ramsay to discuss the account, and promised a formal reply to my letter of 29th January 2015 by 5th February 2015 (a date which had passed)

49: I replied to Mr Charles Mercers email to inform him that the date he was promising a response by had passed. INBOUND EMAIL 6th x 2

50: On the 9th February 2015 I received an email from Amanda Kirkman, BritishPassportService which stated 'On an email sent to Jeff after you completed the online form you say that you have read the small print and you wish to cancel the service. If you did read the Terms and Condition you would have known that we do not accept cancelation via email. Please see bellow [sic] the statement on your contract about cancelling the services.' I believe this refers to my original cancellation email from 18th June 2014.

51. On the 10th February 2015 I received an email from Mr Charles Mercer, BritishPassportServices which requested I forward him a copy of an email from Jeff Ramsay so he may investigate the matter.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In addition to the £117.60 'service' fee, the claimant is claiming numerous 'overdue invoice' fees [EXHIBIT K] which amount to penalties under Common Law and which breach regulation 5(1) of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Having studied the 'Breakdown of Charges' it does not appears to accurately represent the amount of communication that took place and the times and dates do not correspond with my records.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


EXHIBITS

[EXHIBIT X] - text message dated 18th June
[B][EXHIBIT X] - text message dated 18th June
[B][EXHIBIT X] - text message dated 18th June
[B][EXHIBIT X] - text message dated 18th June
[B][EXHIBIT X] - list of 'services' ( 25 thing from website)
[B][EXHIBIT X] - cancellation email 18th June
[B][EXHIBIT X] - text confirmation of my appointment made for 9th July 2014
[B][EXHIBIT X] - 20th June 2014 I received a SMS text message from British Passport Services requesting payment
[EXHIBIT X] - 23rd June 2014 text
[EXHIBIT X] - screenshot UKPO website sept 2014
[EXHIBIT X] - screenshot BPS June 2013
[EXHIBIT X] - screenshot BPS Oct 2014
[EXHIBIT X] - Mail on Sunday article (show other victims who were misled & harrassed etc)
[EXHIBIT X] - letter
[EXHIBIT X] - letter
[EXHIBIT X] - Breakdown of Charges print out
[EXHIBIT X] - ASA adjudication
[EXHIBIT X] - ASA letter
[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -
[EXHIBIT X] -

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

Can you just confirm you have submitted your defence now please.

Mad busy with work until Thursday - won't be able to submit until then (12th March). Deadline is 14th March according to the thread...please tell me we haven't missed it!!!

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

No you're fine waiting till the 12th, I was just mithering you to make sure you get it in xxx You should just be able to do it via Moneyclaim online though ( think I've managed to shrink it enough - if not it can be emailed but you'd also need to send a hard copy by post to Richard and have to add the headers and statement of truth to it )

Ignore the Witness Statement ramblings for now, I'm just working through the letter and timeline you drew up to get it into order so we know if there's anything you'll need to get hold of while we wait for your case being allocated.

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

No you're fine waiting till the 12th, I was just mithering you to make sure you get it in xxx You should just be able to do it via Moneyclaim online though ( think I've managed to shrink it enough - if not it can be emailed but you'd also need to send a hard copy by post to Richard and have to add the headers and statement of truth to it )

Ignore the Witness Statement ramblings for now, I'm just working through the letter and timeline you drew up to get it into order so we know if there's anything you'll need to get hold of while we wait for your case being allocated.

Brilliant. Just had a panic attack thinking we'd missed deadline by 2 days! Aiming to sort it tomorrow, or Thurs eve.

Just a couple of points: our legalese relative was concerned about the ASA section - as I think I've said before, they didn't rule specifically against the BPS website, it was UKPO - I've amended the defence to acknowledge that. He's also dubious that the court will even take that into account being that each website is technically a separate trading name - however as UKS&S are the parent co and each website is not a separate ltd co in their own right, I think the defence is admissible. We shall see!

Secondly, he queried the reference to the '2008 Regulations' in the para about distress - which regs are they?

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence due 14 march )

Yeah that's the benefit of being a LIP, you can kinda get away with things like that. The website adjudicated on is materially the same as the current BPS site and that which you used when you came across it. We've got a screenshot from both sites and other than the title they are virtually identical. As they are both UKS&S and as Richard forgets which is which regularly and is suing everyone who used UK PO in the name of BPS - I'd say its quite justified.

That 2008 regulations bit should come out - it refers to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 amendment which wasn;t in force until Oct... I took the first bit out but missed that.

Maybe amend thus;

16. The Defendant has experienced alarm and distress which has been caused by the Claimant’s misleading actions which caused the Defendant to enter into the alleged Agreement, which resulted in: -harassment of the Defendant by the Claimant for payment of monies which are not due; and -the alarm and distress associated with the foreseeable Claim and court proceedings which the Claimant has brought against the Defendant.

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence in 7/3 ?)

[MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] - just emailed the (hopefully) final draft of the defence, Sharon. Is it OK?

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence in 7/3 ?)

READING xxx

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence in 7/3 ?)

You have mail xxx It's not going to fit on MCOL at a guess, you can give it a shot but you're limited to 122 quite short lines.

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence in 7/3 ?)

Did, on the headings on the Word doc, just switch Witness Statement for Defence - hopefully you'll have noticed that already.

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices ( defence in 7/3 ?)

Did, on the headings on the Word doc, just switch Witness Statement for Defence - hopefully you'll have noticed that already.

Emailed you on that one! Done. Re: my question about printing/signing/scanning/submitting as a .pdf scan - would that be acceptable?

[didactosaurus]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices - DEFENDED

[MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] - Sharon, how do I email this scanned doc when it's done (currently waiting for a 700mb download free trial of Adobe XI to convert to a PDF - I assume it has to be in PDF?). Our legal relative said there is an email address and a specific order to put in the subject, eg claim no - BPS vs ***** - Defence. Is that right? Do you know the email address?

[Amethyst]

Re: *** didactosaurus v BritishPassportServices - DEFENDED

I use CutePDF ( free and easy - you just select CutePDf instead of your printer)

Yes - the email address

ccbcdefendants@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk

Claim XXXXXX - UK Services & Support Ltd v Didactosaurus - DEFENCE

Covering email to include your name, address, phone and email address.

and attach file as PDF.

If you want me to convert to PDF just send me the word doc and the signed page xx



Don't forget to print out a copy too and post it to 12 Deer Park as per the claim form xx