Civil Enforcement Ltd (CEL) – POPLA Appeal Advice

Han_Solo

All credit to Coupon-mad! According to his LinkedIn profile he was Commercial and Legal Manager at Wonga.com Jan 2010-Feb 2011 and the fake letters occurred between October 2008 and November 2010, so a significant period of overlap.

beamerguy said:

Your position is wholly unreasonable, but not unexpected given that CEL’s current batch of meritless claims are now prepared and filed by Scott Wilson as Head of Legal and Compliance, who astonishingly boasts in his LinkedIn profile of previously being Commercial and Legal Manager at Wonga.com. 

Good homework ........ So it probably was Scott Wilson who authorised the fake letters sent out by Wonga ?
And that crashed Wonga and they went bust quickly.  If fake letters are Mr Wilson's forte, CEL can only expect spankings in court and with the new Civil Procedure rules where contempt of court will be the name of the game, could mean that Mr Wilson will be a hell of a liability for CEL

Han_Solo

Hello, I hope all are well.

Earlier this week I finally received a response to the SAR I submitted, well beyond the 30 day prescribed limit (no surprise). It was a .pdf file attached to an email and it only contained copies of the original NTK, CEL's submissions to POPLA (including the decision) and most (but not all) of the letters received post the NTK. In other words, nothing that I don't have copies of already. Not sure if it's significant, but they included a copy of the letter I received from ZZPS, but not the two from QDR.

Given that I requested more than just copies of correspondence when I sent the SAR, is it worth responding to confirm that they hold no other information? I doubt it, but is it best to be sure?

The current demand is £140 so I plan to base my defence on Coupon-mad's latest abuse of process template. Recent correspondence has been via CEL's 'legal team' therefore if/when a solicitor gets involved I guess this amount could increase.

Based on the newbies thread, I believe it's now a matter of waiting for any further correspondence whilst preparing my defence.

Redx

I doubt they have anything else, but cannot rely on any of your data that they failed to disclose anyway

you wont get other items unless its your data, so no contracts etc

doesnt matter what they add, they can only claim what is allowed, not what they deem to addon , a typical loss in court is no more than £200 for one pcn

yes await further correspondence

Han_Solo

I received a county court claim form this morning.

Perhaps I imagined it, but I thought I had read at some point that it's advisable not to submit acknowledgement of service immediately because this effectively brings forward the day of service. Or do the five days (from the issue date) apply regardless of when acknowledgement of service is submitted within that period?

Thanks

Le_Kirk

Quite right, wait five days and then submit your AoS.  If you post the issue date of the claim form, @KeithP will be along to post some deadlines and advice for you.

Han_Solo

Le_Kirk said:

Quite right, wait five days and then submit your AoS.  If you post the issue date of the claim form, @KeithP will be along to post some deadlines and advice for you.

Thanks Le_Kirk, the issue date is 10 July.

KeithP

Han_Solo said:

Thanks Le_Kirk, the issue date is 10 July.

With a Claim Issue Date of 10th July, you have until Wednesday 29th July to file an Acknowledgment of Service. If possible, do not file an AoS before 15th July, but otherwise, there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 12th August 2020 to file your Defence.

That's over four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Han_Solo

Thanks KeithP!

CEL have added false admin costs to their claim, it stands at £140 + interest (~ £155 in total), so I will definitely be using Coupon-mad's latest template defence. I will post here for comment once I've completed a first draft.

Han_Solo

I filed acknowledgement of service on Friday.

I have completed a first draft of my defence, you can view a copy here:
[REMOVED]

See items 17, 17.x, 18.1 and 18.2 for my additions to Coupon-mad's template.

Regarding item 16, I understand that CEL has issued NTKs that do not comply with POFA in the past. However, as far as I can tell the NTK I received is compliant. Can anyone confirm? You can view a copy of the back page here:
[REMOVED]

If the NTK is compliant then there is little from item 16 of the template that applies to my case (only the sentence about signs, which is also referred to in item 18). Therefore should I forget item 16 altogether or is there alternative information I could include?

Thank you.

Coupon-mad

I'd argue that second para on the back is directed only at vehicle hire companies.  I think some Judges would agree.  I'd stick with it not being compliant.