Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, battling readers’ corners to uncover the truth behind closed doors and delivering victory for those left out of pocket. See below for how to contact him.
WN writes: My wife is 79 years old and I am 83 years old. We are both registered disabled. We have lived at the same address for over 50 years.
For a number of months we have been plagued by claims for parking fines by Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, said to be associated with Patrick and Jimmy McDonagh who were at our address .
We don’t know who these people are. We called and emailed the debt collector and explained that the address was incorrect, but they were rude and hung up on us.
Tony Hetherington replied: Those who think there is no need to tighten the rules governing debt collectors should listen to you. You told me that Debt Recovery Plus Ltd (DRPL) “will not take no for an answer” and added that they are “obviously trying to bully us into paying by threatening to sue”. It pains us greatly to think that bailiffs are on our doorstep. We have never owed anyone a penny. ”
You sent me copies of some of the approximately 10 requests you received. These are all penalties for parking in places such as Swindon in Wiltshire and Ilford in east London. You don’t live in either location, and the car license plate shown on the requisition means nothing to you.
The requests are all in the same direction. They say you haven’t paid the £170 fine and: “If you don’t put a payment plan in place now or pay in full, you’re making an active choice to proceed with legal action.” I will blackmail you.
Of course, these threats were directed at Patrick and Jimmy McDonough. Legally, you are clear. Why should we worry? Well, something similar happened to me.
I received a demand for a debt from someone I have never met, but who lived at my home address many years ago. Then one night, a bailiff from a well-known company who had appeared on TV drove into my front garden and put a big sign on my car saying he had a High Court claim for thousands of pounds and had immobilized the vehicle. I attached it. The company admitted that it had never even verified who currently lived at my address, let alone whose car was being targeted. And when I explained in detail what it meant to slander me, they recanted.
The same thing may happen to you. We have therefore contacted DRPL with your signed consent and authorization. I vehemently denied to the company that you had anything to do with the alleged debtor, his car, or the parking violation, so why did he continue to bombard your address with demands and threats? I asked for an explanation.
So I contacted the company’s data protection officer Adrian Walley’s office in Redditch. He is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as the person responsible for safeguarding all data held by DRPL. I submitted a subject access request using your legal right to cause Whalley to submit all data that DRPL holds about you. This allowed them to see if anyone had bothered to find out about you or your address before making the threat.
DRPL was unable to respond. And Wally didn’t respond. The company has no obligation to say anything. Wally is different. He and his company are legally obligated to honor the subject access request, and he has four weeks to do so.
I waited 4 weeks. Wally remained silent. All that happened was that Jimmy McDonagh overstayed his welcome in a Chippenham car park and received a further demand of £170.
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But a few days ago, I finally got to talk to Holly. He told me that DPRL has a policy of not doing business with news organizations. Why am I not surprised! So what about subject access requests? Well, you’ve arrogantly said that only you or someone with authority can make such requests.
That’s exactly right, I told him. And you have a signed authority and have held it for over a month. Wally replied: “I’ll see if I can find it.”
Obviously, in Whalley’s World, his company’s demands are the law. But if real-world laws apply, DRPL cannot confer monkey rights. That’s why I reported him and his cronies to the Office of the Director of Intelligence.
Unsurprisingly, complaints about DRPL’s cover continue to pour in online. “This company is run by a bunch of clowns!” is one gentle comment. More seriously, “They’re going to put my mother in an early grave.” This is from a 93-year-old son who is a target of DRPL. This company has the hallmarks of a random group of people who throw out confetti-like demands, knowing that some people will pay for them, rightly or wrongly. It’s time for regulation. It’s time for action. It’s time to fight back.
Police pension rules are legal but crazy
GN writes: I reached the age to start receiving the national pension in March.
Unfortunately, when my former employer, Suffolk Constabulary, submitted National Insurance contributions for a number of its officers in the 2006-2007 tax year, HM Revenue and Customs did not record those payments. did.
As a result, many of us are now unable to receive a state pension.
Tony Hetherington replied: Suffolk Police are completely open about this. They said: “It is a known issue that HMRC has no record of donations to NI from 2006 to 2007.” This was caused by not importing it.
I asked officials at the Revenue Headquarters to investigate. No one should lose part of their pension because the government’s own records are not kept properly. The good news is that you found out that year he paid £2,772.
The bad news is that when tax officials informed the Department for Work and Pensions, they were told this would not change your pension by a penny. Because you worked all your life, you accumulated the 42 years of contributions needed to secure your state pension.
The extra years of work and contributions will not give you any more pension than you already receive. Legal? yes. Is it ridiculous? That’s exactly right!
If you believe you are the victim of financial fraud, please write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk Please contact us. Due to the large number of inquiries, we are unable to respond to individual inquiries. Please send only copies of the original. We are sorry, but we cannot return original documents.
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