Connaught Collections/Bishop Investigations

oldjonah

Hi

Has anyone else recieved letters from these people? They are claiming I owe £1800 to 1st credit associates. Who are 1st credit associates?? Anyone know? The first letter said they would issue a statutory demand, sent by Connaught collections and that someone would be round to visit. This new letter is from Bishop Investigations and again says they will issue a statutory demand. It also states and I quote

"In normal circumstances one of our agents would attend your address to prove your residence prior to sending an appointment letter. However, we have been informed that you continue to reside at this address and to avoid any embrassment or difficulty that an unsolicited visit may cause, we strongly urge you to arrange an appointment. It is our duty to inform you that should you fail to attend any appointment, or any other made in lieu thereof, substituted service of the said statutory demand shall be effected by insertion of the same through your letterbox or a solicitor may accept service on your behalf."

Is this for real!!???? Am I not worthy of a visit from their agents? An appointment for what? Am i supposed to visit Croydon? Damn long trip seeing I'm at the other end of the country. Both letters have the same address on them.

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks

smcaul

Just send them a letter back stating you know nothing and admit no debt, I have also written in the past that they have no right to call, and do not have permission to enter to my property - I also include the line "Having a letterbox gives neither expressed nor implied permission to enter the property bounderies", many of these companies use the line that you have a post box therefore they are entitled to call at your door. Then inform them all correspondance must be in writing. Sounds like they have purchased a debt off of some one, do you owe any money in the past?

oldjonah

Its possible, but I have no idea who 1st credit are and the outstanding amount seems a bit steep for anything I may have had.

I hate the way they don't have to give you any information in these letters. If they letter had said you owe money for such and such I would feel better about contacting them to repay any that is owed. However, these look and read very unprofessional and i'm not willing to get in to a debate with these people.

To say that they have been "informed" that I reside at this address seems a bit bizarre. Informed by whom?

I read a thread from a different money site, that this company appears to ask for money that people do not actually owe. Although when I searched for Bishop Investigations & Security Services Limited, I drew a blank.

eyeopener

First credit used to be The Associates , credit cards. They have been taken over by Citi I think. If thats any help?

smcaul

Connaught collections have a website, the letter you got is pretty standard from all the collection agencies, they use scare and bullying tactics to get money from people - I have had no end of trouble with Cabot, they kept asking for private info for me to "Confirm" who I was. I already know who I am, if they want to know then they need to furnish me with info, not the other way round - if they won't then it's bye bye and stop contacting me - whatever you do do not give them your phone number - they will ring and ring you - do all corresponding via letter.

Thefunkygibbons

Needless to say, do not acknowledge any debt

Expect them to prove a debt and provide a signed credit agreement

Do not deal with them by phone

Harassed_2

Write to the 'alleged' creditor, First Credit, by Recorded Delivery using the letter below. Enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee. You could also drop a line to the monkeys chasing it, that the alleged debt is in dispute.

I do not acknowledge ANY debt to your company. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.

1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number xxxxx.

2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.

3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

Jan_Lul

A colleague of mine has received just such a letter from Bishops. My colleague's debt is statute barred, ie he has neither acknowledged the debt nor made any payments in the last six years. The letterhead of Bishop Investigations states amongst their various activities process serving, but NOT debt collecting.

Seen in isolation, the letter cannot be faulted and whilst it has undertones, by virtue of any request for formal demand, it is well within 'fair trading' guidelines, and more particularly would be acceptable to a District Judge.

Bishop Investigations & Security Services share the same directors as Connaught Collections UK Ltd and the same
office address. I would therefore be interested to hear from anyone who has been tempted to call Bishops to arrange "an appointment" for serving a Statutory Demand and whether they instead ended up being pressurised into paying the debt either by Bishops or Connaught. If this were the case Bishop Investigations would be acting as debt collectors and their methods would fall foul of The Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance 2003.

The letter cleverly puts the recipient in a dilemma: Whether to face the prospect of a person of possible dubious character knocking unannounced at the door or stumping up the cost of engaging the services of a solicitor to accept substituted service of the Statutory Demand. The debtor is thereby "funnelled" into phoning the number on the letter and the trap is complete.

Likewise I would be interested to hear from anybody who has actually received a Statutory Demand from Bishop Investigations: Did the server do anything other than serve the Statutory Demand, such as demand payment in lieu of the Statutory Demand being served? Was the encounter intimidatory?

Once a statutory demand has been served, the creditor is entitled to make an application to the court for a bankruptcy order. The statutory demand itself does not have to be registered with the court before any such application is made, it merely has to be served. Paradoxically the debtor can apply to the court to have the statutory demand set aside. The problem with statutory demands is that where debts are bordering on being statute barred [and this would only be the case if no payments whatsoever have been made in the last six years] the pleadings in application to the court to set aside can, of themselves, start time to run again.

The way to proceed is to call Bishop's bluff, whilst at the same time preserving your position by getting a local solicitor or The Citizen's advice bureau to accept substituted service of any Statutory Demand, without prejudice just as to costs. Their letter to Bishops should entirely without prejudice expressly deny any indebtedness on your part and whilst preserving your position in the matter request Bishops to have their client forward details of the alleged debt to them so that you can be advised accordingly. The letter should urge Bishops to take this course of action in order to avoid an issue of costs should it be necessary for an application to be made to the court on your behalf to set aside any statutory demand served. (The implication is that Bishop's client will have to meet the costs of a successful application to have any Statutory Demand set aside).

My colleague has gone down this route and after a week having passed no Statutory Demand has been served by substituted service or otherwise, nor have Bishops seen fit to reply to his solicitor's letter.

If the debt is statute barred it is imperative that you do not enter into any dialogue admitting the debt or make any payments which would cause the six years to run again.

If somebody thought that issuing a statutory demand was worthwhile they would do so. The only purpose in threatening
to issue a Statutory Demand is to force the debtor into a dialogue which might cause a statute barred debt to run again.

Nice try Bishops, but tough luck.

carolyn_oneill

I have had 2 letters sent to me at work saying that I am going to be made bankrupt, the debt is over 8 years old and I have not been contacted for years, I dont know how to go about this. The secretary at work opens al the mail as we are not supposed to recieve persomnal mail and this is making me dread going into work, at the moment she has given me the letters but if the manager were to find out that I have recieved letters I woud be in trouble. I dont want to be made bankrupt and they are saying that I reside at the above address (work address) and that I should pjone to make arrangements to be served the statutory demand. Could I write and say that I do not reside at this address as it is a work address and that they should not write to me thereunder the office of fair trading guidelines, and that I do not admit ant debt and that any debt would be statute barred in any case, or is this too much information. anyone who can help please email me or reply to this thanks

oldfella69

Earlier this month I received a letter addressed to a member of my family that hasn't lived at my address for nearly 20 years for an alleged debt with 1st Credit which they say is HSBC.
I replied saying that the alleged debtor did not live at the address and hasn’t for 20 years and not to send any further correspondence regarding the alleged debt to my address again.
Today I received another letter, this time from Bishop's in exactly the same tone as the one sent to oldjonah with the same threats and intimidations.
I have sent a copy of the letters to the Credit Services Agency (CSA) that Connaught claim to be a member of to see what they have to say.
:mad:

rog2

carolyn_oneill wrote:

I have had 2 letters sent to me at work saying that I am going to be made bankrupt, the debt is over 8 years old and I have not been contacted for years, I dont know how to go about this. The secretary at work opens al the mail as we are not supposed to recieve persomnal mail and this is making me dread going into work, at the moment she has given me the letters but if the manager were to find out that I have recieved letters I woud be in trouble. I dont want to be made bankrupt and they are saying that I reside at the above address (work address) and that I should pjone to make arrangements to be served the statutory demand. Could I write and say that I do not reside at this address as it is a work address and that they should not write to me thereunder the office of fair trading guidelines, and that I do not admit ant debt and that any debt would be statute barred in any case, or is this too much information. anyone who can help please email me or reply to this thanks

HiCarolyn,

Your post raises several issues:

1. The alleged 'debt' would certainly appear to be covered by the Statute Barred legislation, if you have made no written contact, or payments, in the last 6 years. In which case the 'debt' is no longer enforceable and you should send them the template letter on the following link:
https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/temp/9599_77611.pdf

2. You are perfectly entitled to demand that any creditor, or Debt Collection Agency do NOT contact you, whether by phone or letter, at your place of work, even more so if your contract of employment states that you are not allowed to receive personal mail. This could be a deliberate action, by the DCA, to put you in a position of embarassment, and therefore in complete contravention of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines on Debt Collection. For more advice on how these criminals should, or should not, conduct their affairs follow this link:
https://www.oft.gov.uk and enter debt collectors in the search facility.

Do not worry about being made bankrupt - it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to petition for your ankruptcy under the conditions you describe.

Good Luck
Rog2