A little update on this. Paid the money but managed to get most of it back from Aldi, who eventually coughed up a cheque, after basically having me relentlessly ring them up every day, bugging the ass off them. Could be worse.

absolutely shocking!

i can't send a message but if you give your email addy i will email you.

From what I can gather, they do not think he is putting them in disrepute because they believe him when he says 'I didn't vandalise the customers car' or whatever, however, a court summons directed towards Aldi might make them think 'hang on, maybe the customer is telling the truth else they wouldn't go to all this trouble' etc. Wouldn't it be lovely if i could make them responsible for my incurred defence costs after it happened as well ,*sigh* .

watching this thread, I love it when the david beats the goliath!

Thankyou SO much! YOu have given me some avenues to explore. Yes the person is the STORE MANAGER and he got everying believing his story, grrr. Today I got a breakdown of what the £1400 is made up of. Tried to PM you but it forum wouldnt allow because under 30 posts! For anyone thats interested: Solicitors received £362.00 plus £72.40 vat Counsel received £811.02 plus £162.20 vat I am quite astonished by this since the councel must have talked to me for all of 20 minutes and there was no trial. I'm a mechanic. I wouldn't fit a bulb to someones car and charge them enough to buy another car!

Thankyou I'm 40 next month. On another note, if I were to at least try to get the car damage paid for (£600) should I persue the bloke, or the company that he works for, as it happened on their premesis, which would I have more luck with in small claims court? I have contacted Aldi on many occasions asking them to pay for the damage. Heres that letter now.

I use my teabags twice, and the 'basics' ones in the supermarket at that, and they cost 28p for 80 bags. Thats 160 cups of tea. They taste no different to expensive bags . Its only got one ingredient!

me too and less food miles etc hopefully

I love freecycle (and freegle) it upsets me so much when i go to the dump and see what people have chucked in the skips that other people out there would have gladly taken.

I've had dozens of excellent results on freecycle, getting and giving. I furnishished my entire place pretty much from there , including the kitchen, the hoover, the table, chairs, sofa. Yes I have encountered the over zealous moderator too, i think every group has to have one of those, must be in the terms and conditions!

good luck with this.

Well done

The tools thing is interesting thankyou .

good luck!

Thats terrible, DVLA seem to aggressively chase people all too often, I got clobbered for SORN once, no warning they just sit back and wait for you to fall foul.

Hi , large scans but forum shrunk them. Tried to link directly to hosted files but I don't have enough posts to be able to link apparently. Thanks for the replies so far.. try this URL for pics of letter (copy and paste into a browser window) thankyou freespace.virgin.net/nissan.patrol/rossend-letter1m.jpg freespace.virgin.net/nissan.patrol/rossend-letter2.jpg

Hello all, I feel like my head is going to implode under stress of whats happening to me.. hoping someone has some ideas .. I'll try to keep it brief. Oct 2011 Drove my much treasured 1960s classic car to one of those German supermarkets East Grinstead (Sussex) Branch. Left store got into car, some guy follows me to car and accuses me of stealing something from shop (didn't!) I try to ignore him and try to leave but he then KICKED my car, damaging a rear lamp etc. I got VERY angry and shouted at him and he ran off, I caught up with him and grabbed him. Really felt like beating the living you know what out of him but I somehow managed to stop myself from doing anything like that, and just grabbed his wrist, but he complained to the police that I had assaulted him, and completely denied doing anything to my car. I had to explain to the police what happened and really didn't think anything would become of it but low and behold, CPS took the case and I got charged with the assault, mainly as other members of staff backed his story and he had cctv showing me restraining him, but no cctv of other end of car park where he kicked car. Anyways, I was offered legal aid so I thought why not and took it. The firm solicitors helped me fill out the paperwork and I gave them my bank statements and house details etc. I was subsequently advised to put in a guilty plea as there would be a conditional discharge (mitigating circumstances etc) and that would be the end of it, so that's what I did. (+£70 court costs) . I was glad to have it all behind me although traumatised and I still had a damaged car and was annoyed about the police not doing anything about that whatsoever. EIGHT MONTHS LATER ( Jan 21st 2013) a bill from some people called Rossendales (on behalf of Legal Services) demands I pay £1407.50 for my legal aid. Mentions bailiffs etc.I was absolutely flabberghasted and shocked and it made me so angry, and after a day or two trying to work out what to do I was getting very depressed and in fact had to have an emergency appointment with my doctor as I was so emotionally unwell. Apparently in some (long ago discarded) paperwork there was something along the lines if 'IF FOUND GUILTY' and if you have equity over £30,000 you MIGHT be asked to pay a CONTRIBUTION towards your defence costs. I DO have more than 30K equity in my house. I am proud to say I have worked hard for 20+ years , having NEVER ONCE been in debt, and have scrimped and saved to get that house, I have never had any benefits etc. I am a self employed car mechanic, I love my job so I stick at it despite the economic situation, I only make around £6000 a year. About half of minimum wage! I make ends meet by having a very modest lifestyle, no holidays, no television, heat my place with scrap wood, buy everything 2nd hand including clothes, home grown veg, Freecycle, you get the picture. My point is: *Why didnt ANYONE tell me I wouldnt qualify for free legal aid, when it was clear to people who are in the know right from the start that I had a house therefore don't qualify. Do I have a case against the solicitors if nothing else? *Surely entering a guilty plea is not being 'found guilty' *Why did it take them EIGHT MONTHS to decide I had to make a contribution. *Why is the paperwork worded 'MIGHT' if the rules are that if you have over 30K you HAVE TO pay for the defence costs. *Why is my 'CONTRIBUTION' actually the TOTAL COST of the defence, that's the most misleading thing I've ever seen on some legal paperwork! Can this be NULLIFIED somehow due to this? I was even told by LSC yesterday that they are aware of the problem and are correcting their documentation soon. *Can my low income not somehow count as to offset that fact that I'm fortunate enough to have a house (paying for it on a low monthly mortgage) as £1400 is a lot of money to someone like me, who was told something was free, and would have managed WITHOUT A SOLICITOR had I had any idea it wasn't free. £1400 is a quarter of a years work for me! So far I have managed to speak to the manager of legal Services Commission who made sympathedic noises but said those are the rules, hands tied , all that. Managed to get him to put Rossendales on hold for their bailiffs threats etc.but thats as far as I got. If anyone has some insight on this I would absolutely love to hear some suggestions of what I can do as I feel so wronged by the entire justice system right now and its ruining my life. If there is a lawyer reading this who really knows LSC contribution cases and can definately get this retracted I wouldn't mind paying them , once i'm off it of course! Happy to donate to this site too. Thankyou!!!

My spirits feel slightly lifted after reading your thread, I am having a similar battle with rossendales/LSC ! I will start my own thread on it in a moment.