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Re: peterpiper v UK Services & Support Passport - DEFENCE DUE BEFORE Monday, April 6,
So Peter's witness statement needs to be in by 30th July.
I'd recommend taking a copy of the ASA adjudication at the very least. There's some other EXHIBIT's in here http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...sible-EXHIBITS
here's an example of someone else's witness statement -
IN THE xxxxxxxxxxxxx COUNTY COURT
B E T W E E N:-
UK SERVICES & SUPPORT LTD
Claimant
and
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Defendant
____________________________________________
WITNESS STATEMENT
____________________________________________
I, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx will state as follows;
1. I am a XXX YOUR JOB / PROFESSION etc XXXX at XXXXX WHERE YOU WORK XXXXXX 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. I am a litigant in person.
4. On 25/11/2014 I found myself in a position where I needed to renew my passport quickly in order to be able to travel with fellow students to Holland on 28/11/2014.
5. 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 a search engine and the following term (or similar); ‘Renew passport urgently’.
6. This online search took me to the BritishPassportServices website which was the most official looking of the top results; www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
7. The website was convincing and seemed to be official and offer what looked to be the exact service I required and the cost was quoted as £117.60.
8. I clicked the large “APPLY NOW!” button on the website which led me to an online booking form. I completed this with my personal details and entered the dates which I was available to attend my appointment at The Durham Passport Office. This was 26th/27th/28th November 2014.
9. 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 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.
11. The website then took me to a payment page where I was asked for £117.60. This created several problems. First, I couldn’t pay by credit or debit card; I don’t have the former and had insufficient funds in my current account for the latter for this amount.
12. Second, I intended to pay at the Passport Office using a cheque my father had provided me with. At the bottom of the payment page it stated ''To cancel your order and return to the site – click here'' I therefore decided to telephone the Passport Office directly and try organise things that way. I closed the web page reasonably believing by doing so that this would be the end of the matter.
13. 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.
14. I searched the internet for a telephone number for the passport office and this time found the right details. I called Durham Passport Office directly to check if the appointment had been made and to ask them about the state of the payment.
15. The Passport Office confirmed that an appointment had been booked for me but that I would need to make a payment of £128 directly to the passport office when I attended for my appointment for the passport.
16. They told me that I should not need to pay to make an appointment. 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 advised not to pay British Passport Services.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. I cancelled the appointment that had been booked for me by British Passport Services and booked my own appointment at a different time directly with the passport office.
20. I then received two emails from British Passport Services. (Exhibit A and B).
21. The first (Exhibit A) confirmed my online form had been received and requested payment within three working days. This was a total surprise to me as I had left the site when I realised I was unable to pay there and then.
22. The second (Exhibit B) had been sent had been sent at 09:54am on 25/11/2014 and it confirmed an appointment had been booked in my name at Durham Passport Office for the following day. As I had elected to close the web page because I was unable to fulfil the online payment requirement I was surprised that the company had gone ahead and booked an appointment without my instruction or any consideration on my part for them to do so.
23. Around 5pm on 25 November 2014 British Passport Services telephoned my home address landline number. The call was answered by my Mother, Alison Wainwright.
24. My Mother had told me that the caller asked to speak to me as they were unable to get through on my mobile phone. My Mother pointed out that I was away at University. They were chasing payment for their alleged services. My Mother pointed out that I had a cheque in my possession to pay for the passport but the caller was adamant had to pay them a fee before I attended my appointment the next day.
25. For the duration of the call my mother was convinced she was speaking with the Passport Office and not some third party. At no stage during the call did the caller identify the fact that she was NOT calling from the Official Passport Office.
26. On 28/11/2014 correspondence addressed to me arrived at my home address (Exhibit C). I was away at University at the time. Subsequently, when opened, this letter contained details of an appointment at the Durham Passport Office along with details of other services I had not requested nor wished to pay for.
27. On Sunday 30/11/2014 10:30am I received an email from British Passport Services (Exhibit D). The email referred to a contract that British Passport Services alleged I had made with them. They gave me a link within the email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx18. This link did not work.
28. Until then I had not received a copy of 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.
29. In response to the allegation in Exhibit D 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 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 me 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 Durham Passport Office consisted of how I would get to Durham Passport Office from my home address in West Yorkshire. I travelled from my student accommodation in Newcastle. In any case I have a mobile phone and know how to use Google myself.
30. On 06/12/2014 further correspondence addressed to me arrived at my home address. This was a letter (Exhibit E) from ‘Amanda Kirkman’ of British Passport Services regarding an unpaid invoice.
31. At this point, because I was away at University, I requested that my step father, Richard Dixon, to take over communications with and correspondence from, British Passport Services and represent me in any further dealings with this company. This was clarified to British Passport Services in a letter dated 7 December 2014 (Exhibit F)
32. British Passport Services’ response to Exhibit F is shown here as Exhibit G.
33. British Passport Services sent an email on 17/12/2014 to my stepfather requesting that payment be made (Exhibit H).
34. An email was sent at 7:36pm on Friday December 19th 2014 to British Passport Services pointing out that the link they had previously provided (hxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxorg.uk/x) did not work and a request for the correct link was made (Exhibit I)
35. Nine minutes later British Passport Services replied with the correct link (Exhibit J). 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.
36. This was the first time I had seen any contract. 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.
37. 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.
38. On the 31st December 2014 I received a letter sent by Recorded delivery from BritishPassportServices (Exhibit K) signed by Charles Mercer headed 'Formal Notice of Intended Court Action Pre-Action Conduct Letter'.
39. 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. This included a mocked up official looking Court Claim form. The letter included a copy of an invoice (Exhibit L) which stated an amount of £133.10 was due.
40. Towards the end of January, a Claim Form issued in the County Court Business Centre, dated 19 Jan 2015 in the sum of £197.60 was received at my home address.
41. 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 M) 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.
42. That website is still live and at the time of the adjudication looked exactly the same as the website BritishPassportServices (Exhibit N). Although the ASA Adjudication is under appeal by the claimant I have confirmation from the ASA that the ruling still stands (Exhibit O)
43. I also found various online discussion forums such as LegalBeagles and MoneySavingExpert and found reports by respected media establishments like Mail on Sunday, www.which.com and www.thisismoney.com. (Exhibits P,Q,R,S,T)
44. 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.
45. 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.
46. British Passport Services display details for all the cases they have won on their website (Exhibit U) 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.
47. This was case B7QZ6275 at Cambridge County Court on 7th May 2015 before Deputy District Judge Raggett.(Exhibit V) The Judge found against the Claimant due to his website being misleading.
48. I am aware of two further hearings where the Court found against the claimant, in similar circumstances, however the Claimant did not attend those hearings.
49. I am also aware that the Claimant has discontinued a number of cases shortly before the hearing.
50. 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.
51. I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
Signed ________________________
Dated ________________________
So Peter's witness statement needs to be in by 30th July.
I'd recommend taking a copy of the ASA adjudication at the very least. There's some other EXHIBIT's in here http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...sible-EXHIBITS
here's an example of someone else's witness statement -
IN THE xxxxxxxxxxxxx COUNTY COURT
B E T W E E N:-
UK SERVICES & SUPPORT LTD
Claimant
and
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Defendant
____________________________________________
WITNESS STATEMENT
____________________________________________
I, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx will state as follows;
1. I am a XXX YOUR JOB / PROFESSION etc XXXX at XXXXX WHERE YOU WORK XXXXXX 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. I am a litigant in person.
4. On 25/11/2014 I found myself in a position where I needed to renew my passport quickly in order to be able to travel with fellow students to Holland on 28/11/2014.
5. 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 a search engine and the following term (or similar); ‘Renew passport urgently’.
6. This online search took me to the BritishPassportServices website which was the most official looking of the top results; www.britishpassportservices.co.uk.
7. The website was convincing and seemed to be official and offer what looked to be the exact service I required and the cost was quoted as £117.60.
8. I clicked the large “APPLY NOW!” button on the website which led me to an online booking form. I completed this with my personal details and entered the dates which I was available to attend my appointment at The Durham Passport Office. This was 26th/27th/28th November 2014.
9. 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 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.
11. The website then took me to a payment page where I was asked for £117.60. This created several problems. First, I couldn’t pay by credit or debit card; I don’t have the former and had insufficient funds in my current account for the latter for this amount.
12. Second, I intended to pay at the Passport Office using a cheque my father had provided me with. At the bottom of the payment page it stated ''To cancel your order and return to the site – click here'' I therefore decided to telephone the Passport Office directly and try organise things that way. I closed the web page reasonably believing by doing so that this would be the end of the matter.
13. 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.
14. I searched the internet for a telephone number for the passport office and this time found the right details. I called Durham Passport Office directly to check if the appointment had been made and to ask them about the state of the payment.
15. The Passport Office confirmed that an appointment had been booked for me but that I would need to make a payment of £128 directly to the passport office when I attended for my appointment for the passport.
16. They told me that I should not need to pay to make an appointment. 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 advised not to pay British Passport Services.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. I cancelled the appointment that had been booked for me by British Passport Services and booked my own appointment at a different time directly with the passport office.
20. I then received two emails from British Passport Services. (Exhibit A and B).
21. The first (Exhibit A) confirmed my online form had been received and requested payment within three working days. This was a total surprise to me as I had left the site when I realised I was unable to pay there and then.
22. The second (Exhibit B) had been sent had been sent at 09:54am on 25/11/2014 and it confirmed an appointment had been booked in my name at Durham Passport Office for the following day. As I had elected to close the web page because I was unable to fulfil the online payment requirement I was surprised that the company had gone ahead and booked an appointment without my instruction or any consideration on my part for them to do so.
23. Around 5pm on 25 November 2014 British Passport Services telephoned my home address landline number. The call was answered by my Mother, Alison Wainwright.
24. My Mother had told me that the caller asked to speak to me as they were unable to get through on my mobile phone. My Mother pointed out that I was away at University. They were chasing payment for their alleged services. My Mother pointed out that I had a cheque in my possession to pay for the passport but the caller was adamant had to pay them a fee before I attended my appointment the next day.
25. For the duration of the call my mother was convinced she was speaking with the Passport Office and not some third party. At no stage during the call did the caller identify the fact that she was NOT calling from the Official Passport Office.
26. On 28/11/2014 correspondence addressed to me arrived at my home address (Exhibit C). I was away at University at the time. Subsequently, when opened, this letter contained details of an appointment at the Durham Passport Office along with details of other services I had not requested nor wished to pay for.
27. On Sunday 30/11/2014 10:30am I received an email from British Passport Services (Exhibit D). The email referred to a contract that British Passport Services alleged I had made with them. They gave me a link within the email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx18. This link did not work.
28. Until then I had not received a copy of 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.
29. In response to the allegation in Exhibit D 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 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 me 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 Durham Passport Office consisted of how I would get to Durham Passport Office from my home address in West Yorkshire. I travelled from my student accommodation in Newcastle. In any case I have a mobile phone and know how to use Google myself.
30. On 06/12/2014 further correspondence addressed to me arrived at my home address. This was a letter (Exhibit E) from ‘Amanda Kirkman’ of British Passport Services regarding an unpaid invoice.
31. At this point, because I was away at University, I requested that my step father, Richard Dixon, to take over communications with and correspondence from, British Passport Services and represent me in any further dealings with this company. This was clarified to British Passport Services in a letter dated 7 December 2014 (Exhibit F)
32. British Passport Services’ response to Exhibit F is shown here as Exhibit G.
33. British Passport Services sent an email on 17/12/2014 to my stepfather requesting that payment be made (Exhibit H).
34. An email was sent at 7:36pm on Friday December 19th 2014 to British Passport Services pointing out that the link they had previously provided (hxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxorg.uk/x) did not work and a request for the correct link was made (Exhibit I)
35. Nine minutes later British Passport Services replied with the correct link (Exhibit J). 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.
36. This was the first time I had seen any contract. 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.
37. 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.
38. On the 31st December 2014 I received a letter sent by Recorded delivery from BritishPassportServices (Exhibit K) signed by Charles Mercer headed 'Formal Notice of Intended Court Action Pre-Action Conduct Letter'.
39. 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. This included a mocked up official looking Court Claim form. The letter included a copy of an invoice (Exhibit L) which stated an amount of £133.10 was due.
40. Towards the end of January, a Claim Form issued in the County Court Business Centre, dated 19 Jan 2015 in the sum of £197.60 was received at my home address.
41. 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 M) 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.
42. That website is still live and at the time of the adjudication looked exactly the same as the website BritishPassportServices (Exhibit N). Although the ASA Adjudication is under appeal by the claimant I have confirmation from the ASA that the ruling still stands (Exhibit O)
43. I also found various online discussion forums such as LegalBeagles and MoneySavingExpert and found reports by respected media establishments like Mail on Sunday, www.which.com and www.thisismoney.com. (Exhibits P,Q,R,S,T)
44. 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.
45. 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.
46. British Passport Services display details for all the cases they have won on their website (Exhibit U) 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.
47. This was case B7QZ6275 at Cambridge County Court on 7th May 2015 before Deputy District Judge Raggett.(Exhibit V) The Judge found against the Claimant due to his website being misleading.
48. I am aware of two further hearings where the Court found against the claimant, in similar circumstances, however the Claimant did not attend those hearings.
49. I am also aware that the Claimant has discontinued a number of cases shortly before the hearing.
50. 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.
51. I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
Signed ________________________
Dated ________________________
excellent. That really is very good. Need to work on para's 41 - 50 though with updates... 
Give me half hour or so then you'll be good to go I reckon - you got all your exhibits sorted ?
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