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Re: ADS (stickyicky) v BPS - claim received 23/02/2015 - defence BY March 28, 2015
Witness Statement .... sent over this morning.
Defence was done in March - this is the Witness Statement now.
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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. I am a litigant in person.
4. Save where otherwise accepted within this Defence, the Particulars of Claim are denied. In particular, I deny entering into an effective and binding Agreement with the Claimant as alleged by the Particulars of Claim, or at all.
5. The Claimant, trading as British Passport Services, operates a “copycat” website which claims to offer access to Government services for which the Claimant is not an official Government provider, specifically in relation to UK passports. The Claimant used misleading advertising, words, prices and conduct to induce me to enter into an alleged Agreement to provide “services” in relation to obtaining a passport.
6. In August 2014 I required to renew my passport and was due to travel overseas on the 21st August 2014, when I noticed my passport had less than six months until it expired. I was aware that I would need to travel to the nearest passport office and that an appointment would be necessary in order to fast track my new passport. I set about doing this by searching online using Google, and tying in the following terms ‘Renew British passport’.
7. I clicked the first link on the top of the list, to apply for a passport renewal. I believed this was the official H M Passport Office website.
8. This online search took me to the British Passport Services website which was the most official looking of the top results; www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
9. The website was convincing and seemed to be official and offer what looked to be the exact service he required and the cost was quoted as £117.60 which is the amount I expected as my family members paid the same fee when renewing their passports. I completed the form to renew my passport in the belief that British Passport Services was part of, or otherwise an authorised 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.
10. I completed the online form on the 4th August 2014, and submitted this. I was asked to use my mouse pad to make an impression of my signature, which I duly performed, and ticked a box to confirm my details were correct. This was performed at 11.24am. (See Exhibit D)
11. Throughout all of the above, I remained convinced I was visiting an official government website and that clicking away from the site would be the end of the matter.
12. I had no intention of entering into any contract with the claimant and in fact only wanted to book an appointment directly at the HM Passport Office. I was misled into thinking the Claimant’s website was the official HM Passport Office website.
13. It is important to note here that the government are cracking down on copycat websites, such as this claimant; see Exhibit A (Official government website), B (Guardian article) and C (Which article).
14. After completion of the form and reaching an online payment page I felt suspicious as to the true nature of the website and telephoned the number given on the website immediately to ensure any service was not provided and any agreement that may have been entered into by mistake was cancelled.
15. The confirmation email sent to I provided a number, and this was dialled as soon as possible. I was held on the line until an operator could answer.
16. Once an operator was available, in the discussion, the Claimant claimed that they had provided their “service” and required payment of £117.60, and that this was uncancellable. I refused to pay the fee on the basis this was misleading, and was then instructed to send an email to complaints@britishpassportservices.org.uk to resolve the issue. The response from the email concluded that although the appointment has now been cancelled, the fee was still due (See Exhibit E). This was done at 12.07pm. (Cancellation occurred on the phone, therefore actual cancellation occurred much sooner than 12.07pm)
17. I then contacted the HMPO to book directly out of urgency and also discussed the website I accidentally went through to seek advice.
18. The manager at the HMPO advised not to make any payments as they were aware of this copycat website.
19. The Passport Office also confirmed that an appointment had been booked for me but that I would need to make a payment of £117.60 directly to the passport office when I attended for my appointment for the passport and that they do not take any advance payment.
20. Additionally, the passport office told me that I should not need to pay to make an appointment as this is a free service. They also confirmed that the Passport Office would not ask for payment online and that I may have been victim of a scam. I was again advised not to pay British Passport Services.
21. 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 (which is free), and a number of other pointless services which I neither requested nor wish to have or pay for.
22. 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.
23. It was on the 23rd February 2015, when I received a county claim form from the Claimant which came as a total surprise.
24. After seeking advice from several sources, I organised a meeting with my local MP (John Hemming) to discuss further on this matter.
25. In the meeting, it was revealed that I was not the first person to contact the local MP regarding this website (British Passport Services). And therefore the local MP assisted me to further investigate how they can support me with my case, and later on through liaising with the HMPO directly. Communication can be seen (See Exhibit F – Exhibit F has been highlighted in a red border for some critical information researched by the local MP).
26. HMPO also confirmed that they are aware of this copycat website (Exhibit Q) and they are working to reduce these types of copycat websites.
27. However, it was through the investigation of the local MP, further news was developed regarding the Claimants individual History as well as his company history (See Exhibit F – Exhibit F has been highlighted in a red border for some critical information). Through his own research, the following articles have been found proving that I was not the only victim. There were hundreds just like me. (See Exhibit G, H and I). Exhibit H includes victim stories of which are the same as me.
28. In response to the allegation that all the services had been delivered:
a. I had obviously not received any letter notification at this point as it was still only a little more than half an hour after I had first visited the British Passport Services website.
b. I never received any emergency travel document card and do not even know what this is nor do I remember asking for one.
c. I had not received the 30 minute telephone consultation at this point, and much later when someone called to try and deliver this service, even after I told them not to,I ended the call in a matter of seconds explaining that I had cancelled this service.
d. I was never sent any details for any queue jumping website and also don’t know why one would need this for an appointment that is booked at a specific time.
e. The google map directions to the Peterborough Office consisted of how I would get to Peterborough Passport Office from my home address in Midlands. I travelled from my client’s site in Northampton. In any case I have a mobile phone and knows how to use Google myself.
29. In between September 2014 and January 2015, British Passport Services replied with several emails with the link to my “contract”. It should be noted that this document was/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 customers personal data being misappropriated.
30. This was the first time I had seen any “contract”. I found that all of 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.
31. I had not consented to that personal data being made freely accessible through the internet. 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.
32. In October 2014 I received a letter sent by recorded delivery from British Passport Services headed 'Formal Notice of Intended Court Action Pre-Action Conduct Letter'.
33. The letter stated that he owed £117.60 and contained a lot of material which appeared to be designed to intimidate me into making payment. This included a mocked up official looking Court Claim form.
34. Towards the end of February 2015, a Claim Form issued in the County Court Business Centre, dated 23 February 2015 in the sum of £197.60 was received at my home address.
35. On researching how to deal with a County Court claim, I discovered the Claimant also owns other websites that are very similar to www.britishpassportservices.co.uk, including www.ukpassportoffices.co.uk, which was the subject of an Advertising Standards Authority adjudication (ref A14-273276) (Exhibit J) 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.
36. That website is still live and at the time of the adjudication looked exactly the same as the website British Passport Services (Exhibit J). Although the ASA Adjudication is under appeal by the claimant, I has confirmation from the ASA that the ruling still stands.
37. I also found further various online discussion forums such as Legal Beagles and Money Saving Expert and found reports by respected media establishments like BBC, Mail on Sunday, www.which.com and www.thisismoney.com. (Exhibits G, H, I, M, N, O, and P)
38. It is my thoughts that the large number of people who are misunderstanding and complaining about this website clearly demonstrates that the website is very easy to misinterpret as the official HM Passport Office.
39. I also found that many other people have been threatened with, or received court papers from the Claimant. It appears many are paying when threatened with court action because they are afraid, do not have time or don’t understand that they can fight the case.
40. British Passport Services display details for all the cases they have won on their website (Exhibit K) I am aware that the Claimant, despite having bought hundreds of claims against consumers since December 2014, has only attended one hearing. All of the Judgments listed on the Claimants website are either settled on receipt of the court papers or a default judgment is entered.
41. This was case B7QZ6275 at Cambridge County Court on 7th May 2015 before Deputy District Judge Raggett. (Exhibit L) The Judge found against the Claimant due to my website being misleading.
42. I am aware of many further hearings where the Court found against the claimant, in similar circumstances, however the Claimant did not attend those hearings.
43. I am also aware that the Claimant has discontinued a number of cases shortly before the hearing.
44. I do not believe I have any liability to the Claimant. I received no services from the Claimant. I cancelled any alleged agreement I was misled into entering into and had no intention to contract with the Claimant whatsoever.
Statement of Truth
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Signed …………………………………………
Dated …………………………………………
Witness Statement .... sent over this morning.
Defence was done in March - this is the Witness Statement now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. I am a litigant in person.
4. Save where otherwise accepted within this Defence, the Particulars of Claim are denied. In particular, I deny entering into an effective and binding Agreement with the Claimant as alleged by the Particulars of Claim, or at all.
5. The Claimant, trading as British Passport Services, operates a “copycat” website which claims to offer access to Government services for which the Claimant is not an official Government provider, specifically in relation to UK passports. The Claimant used misleading advertising, words, prices and conduct to induce me to enter into an alleged Agreement to provide “services” in relation to obtaining a passport.
6. In August 2014 I required to renew my passport and was due to travel overseas on the 21st August 2014, when I noticed my passport had less than six months until it expired. I was aware that I would need to travel to the nearest passport office and that an appointment would be necessary in order to fast track my new passport. I set about doing this by searching online using Google, and tying in the following terms ‘Renew British passport’.
7. I clicked the first link on the top of the list, to apply for a passport renewal. I believed this was the official H M Passport Office website.
8. This online search took me to the British Passport Services website which was the most official looking of the top results; www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
9. The website was convincing and seemed to be official and offer what looked to be the exact service he required and the cost was quoted as £117.60 which is the amount I expected as my family members paid the same fee when renewing their passports. I completed the form to renew my passport in the belief that British Passport Services was part of, or otherwise an authorised 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.
10. I completed the online form on the 4th August 2014, and submitted this. I was asked to use my mouse pad to make an impression of my signature, which I duly performed, and ticked a box to confirm my details were correct. This was performed at 11.24am. (See Exhibit D)
11. Throughout all of the above, I remained convinced I was visiting an official government website and that clicking away from the site would be the end of the matter.
12. I had no intention of entering into any contract with the claimant and in fact only wanted to book an appointment directly at the HM Passport Office. I was misled into thinking the Claimant’s website was the official HM Passport Office website.
13. It is important to note here that the government are cracking down on copycat websites, such as this claimant; see Exhibit A (Official government website), B (Guardian article) and C (Which article).
14. After completion of the form and reaching an online payment page I felt suspicious as to the true nature of the website and telephoned the number given on the website immediately to ensure any service was not provided and any agreement that may have been entered into by mistake was cancelled.
15. The confirmation email sent to I provided a number, and this was dialled as soon as possible. I was held on the line until an operator could answer.
16. Once an operator was available, in the discussion, the Claimant claimed that they had provided their “service” and required payment of £117.60, and that this was uncancellable. I refused to pay the fee on the basis this was misleading, and was then instructed to send an email to complaints@britishpassportservices.org.uk to resolve the issue. The response from the email concluded that although the appointment has now been cancelled, the fee was still due (See Exhibit E). This was done at 12.07pm. (Cancellation occurred on the phone, therefore actual cancellation occurred much sooner than 12.07pm)
17. I then contacted the HMPO to book directly out of urgency and also discussed the website I accidentally went through to seek advice.
18. The manager at the HMPO advised not to make any payments as they were aware of this copycat website.
19. The Passport Office also confirmed that an appointment had been booked for me but that I would need to make a payment of £117.60 directly to the passport office when I attended for my appointment for the passport and that they do not take any advance payment.
20. Additionally, the passport office told me that I should not need to pay to make an appointment as this is a free service. They also confirmed that the Passport Office would not ask for payment online and that I may have been victim of a scam. I was again advised not to pay British Passport Services.
21. 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 (which is free), and a number of other pointless services which I neither requested nor wish to have or pay for.
22. 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.
23. It was on the 23rd February 2015, when I received a county claim form from the Claimant which came as a total surprise.
24. After seeking advice from several sources, I organised a meeting with my local MP (John Hemming) to discuss further on this matter.
25. In the meeting, it was revealed that I was not the first person to contact the local MP regarding this website (British Passport Services). And therefore the local MP assisted me to further investigate how they can support me with my case, and later on through liaising with the HMPO directly. Communication can be seen (See Exhibit F – Exhibit F has been highlighted in a red border for some critical information researched by the local MP).
26. HMPO also confirmed that they are aware of this copycat website (Exhibit Q) and they are working to reduce these types of copycat websites.
27. However, it was through the investigation of the local MP, further news was developed regarding the Claimants individual History as well as his company history (See Exhibit F – Exhibit F has been highlighted in a red border for some critical information). Through his own research, the following articles have been found proving that I was not the only victim. There were hundreds just like me. (See Exhibit G, H and I). Exhibit H includes victim stories of which are the same as me.
28. In response to the allegation that all the services had been delivered:
a. I had obviously not received any letter notification at this point as it was still only a little more than half an hour after I had first visited the British Passport Services website.
b. I never received any emergency travel document card and do not even know what this is nor do I remember asking for one.
c. I had not received the 30 minute telephone consultation at this point, and much later when someone called to try and deliver this service, even after I told them not to,I ended the call in a matter of seconds explaining that I had cancelled this service.
d. I was never sent any details for any queue jumping website and also don’t know why one would need this for an appointment that is booked at a specific time.
e. The google map directions to the Peterborough Office consisted of how I would get to Peterborough Passport Office from my home address in Midlands. I travelled from my client’s site in Northampton. In any case I have a mobile phone and knows how to use Google myself.
29. In between September 2014 and January 2015, British Passport Services replied with several emails with the link to my “contract”. It should be noted that this document was/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 customers personal data being misappropriated.
30. This was the first time I had seen any “contract”. I found that all of 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.
31. I had not consented to that personal data being made freely accessible through the internet. 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.
32. In October 2014 I received a letter sent by recorded delivery from British Passport Services headed 'Formal Notice of Intended Court Action Pre-Action Conduct Letter'.
33. The letter stated that he owed £117.60 and contained a lot of material which appeared to be designed to intimidate me into making payment. This included a mocked up official looking Court Claim form.
34. Towards the end of February 2015, a Claim Form issued in the County Court Business Centre, dated 23 February 2015 in the sum of £197.60 was received at my home address.
35. On researching how to deal with a County Court claim, I discovered the Claimant also owns other websites that are very similar to www.britishpassportservices.co.uk, including www.ukpassportoffices.co.uk, which was the subject of an Advertising Standards Authority adjudication (ref A14-273276) (Exhibit J) 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.
36. That website is still live and at the time of the adjudication looked exactly the same as the website British Passport Services (Exhibit J). Although the ASA Adjudication is under appeal by the claimant, I has confirmation from the ASA that the ruling still stands.
37. I also found further various online discussion forums such as Legal Beagles and Money Saving Expert and found reports by respected media establishments like BBC, Mail on Sunday, www.which.com and www.thisismoney.com. (Exhibits G, H, I, M, N, O, and P)
38. It is my thoughts that the large number of people who are misunderstanding and complaining about this website clearly demonstrates that the website is very easy to misinterpret as the official HM Passport Office.
39. I also found that many other people have been threatened with, or received court papers from the Claimant. It appears many are paying when threatened with court action because they are afraid, do not have time or don’t understand that they can fight the case.
40. British Passport Services display details for all the cases they have won on their website (Exhibit K) I am aware that the Claimant, despite having bought hundreds of claims against consumers since December 2014, has only attended one hearing. All of the Judgments listed on the Claimants website are either settled on receipt of the court papers or a default judgment is entered.
41. This was case B7QZ6275 at Cambridge County Court on 7th May 2015 before Deputy District Judge Raggett. (Exhibit L) The Judge found against the Claimant due to my website being misleading.
42. I am aware of many further hearings where the Court found against the claimant, in similar circumstances, however the Claimant did not attend those hearings.
43. I am also aware that the Claimant has discontinued a number of cases shortly before the hearing.
44. I do not believe I have any liability to the Claimant. I received no services from the Claimant. I cancelled any alleged agreement I was misled into entering into and had no intention to contract with the Claimant whatsoever.
Statement of Truth
I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.
Signed …………………………………………
Dated …………………………………………
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