I had an incident where I got banned for life from sainsbury. Nothing was stolen from sainsbury. I had paid for all the items. I had an item from different retailer and I couldn't provide the receipt for that. I have recieved DWF letter now. I have been reading other posts regarding same kind of experience where people have been advised not to pay them. Just wondering if anyone had recent experience and what was the outcome. I don't want anything going on credit file if I don't pay. Any advise would be much appreciated

I see that the application notice and proposed defence are signed off by somebody called /-/media/dwf-global-site/images/open-graph/default/standard-open-graph.jpg Jonathan Hall | Director | DWF DWFGROUP.COM DWF is a leading global provider of integrated legal and business services. Apparently he is Ha ha! Definite not a solicitor you need on your side. He has put his hands up to negligently dealing with instructions from his client. However, his client doesn't seem to be much better and appears not even to have provided him with the details of the particulars of claim or if they have then maybe he has lost them. I also find myself wondering as to if he really hasn't seen the particulars of claim how he is able to conjure up such a detailed proposed defence. Of course the funny thing about the proposed defence is that first of all he says that there the faults were not there at the point of sale. Then he goes on to admit that there is a presumption in the consumer rights act that any faults which occur within the first six months are taken to be present at the point of sale. He then goes on to say that this is rebuttable (true) and said that they will have to be expert testimony us to this point – but so far as I can make out, neither he nor the finance company have bothered to get any expert testimony and so he doesn't have the evidence he needs but he is saying that they have a real chance of success without any evidence. Bravo Jonathan Hall. If I were the finance company I think I will be considering a change of solicitor

Ok I have proof read and have a letter drafted, i have obviously left out the reference numbers but here it is... Dear Trade Centre uk, Dear Startline Motor Finance, and Dear Jonathan Hall - apparently a solicitor at DWF law Reference number XXX. Claim number XXX. Vehicle registration number XXX Jonathan, don't think that simply because you say that a payment has been made to me that that is the end of the matter. You had better look at the claim form very carefully and also my response. I now have the incompetent dealership – Trade Centre UK hassling me to collect the vehicle from them – the same one as you well know, have had it for several months already. The same one as you well know that have tried to repair several times and failed. The same vehicle in respect of which the other incompetent company – Startline Motor Finance have now been forced to give me a full reimbursement in response to my claim, as you well know. The same claim which as you well know, you handled so negligently that it went to a default judgement and then you had the cheek to try and threaten me alongside an application notice which you formulated on some imaginary defence despite the fact that you had never seen the claim form. Jonathan, if you want to exercise a bit of professionalism now, you should advise your clients Startline Motor Finance to sort this out once and for all. That means that they should deal with the dealership – which of course there are obliged to do under the law relating to hire purchase agreements. They should tell the dealership to stop hassling me. To understand that the car now belongs to them again and that they had better sort out some proper repairs before they put it up for sale to their next victim. You can tell the dealership that I shall be publishing details of the registration number and images of the vehicle together with the faults that I am aware of on the Internet and with a bit of luck, any future purchaser will be made aware before they part with their money. You should also tell Startline Motor Finance to formally cancel any agreement with me and frankly you should probably advise them to stop having anything to do with the dealership although probably you all deserve each other. You had better understand – and you better inform everybody, – that the court action I took to get my money back is only the first and I will take more if necessary against the finance company. I suppose with the next legal action I take, you may not be so negligent and you will deal with it but you will still lose. Not only that, when we go to court, I will make sure that the judge sees everything including the previous particulars of claim, your imaginary defence including your admission of your own negligence in respect of the handling of that matter. And finally, on 26 January I sent your motor finance company clients a subject access request. No surprises that they failed to respond within the statutory 30 days and so they are now in breach of their statutory duty. I suppose they will ask you for help. I suppose you will try to say that they were entitled not to respond because I had not verified my identity. Of course the name and address for responding to the SAR is exactly the same one that you, your finance company clients and your dealership have all been happy to use when sending me documents, threatening me, making my life miserable – so I am telling you now, that if you try the identity verification trick, then I will include that in an action against your clients for their statutory breach of duty and I'm quite sure that the judge will recognise this is simply some stumbling and clumsy attempt to disguise your breach of the SAR obligations under the Data Protection Act. As it is, your clients are now in breach of their statutory duty. This has caused me a lot of distress as you can imagine. I'm proposing to bring a legal action against your clients. As your clients are now in breach, they will not be able to undo this breach. It is a fait accompli although they can mitigate it by letting me have the data disclosure without any further delay. However, in respect of the present breach, I think that £100 payment in respect of their statutory failure is a small sum to pay me in recognition of the distress I have suffered from their failure to provide me with a statutory disclosure so far. Tell your clients from me that if I do not received both £100 in respect of the statutory breach as it exists at this point in time along with full disclosure of all my personal data within 14 days, that I shall sue them in the County Court and without further notice. You had better also tell your finance company clients that this will be only the start of the process of sorting out the entire mess that has been created by the dealership, by your clients – and of course by your own negligence. You seem to be incapable of cleaning it up, you have had over a week already since the payment was made, so I'm going to do it myself. And here is an update: I have just received a letter from your clients demanding arrears on the account are paid and charging me £15 per letter! This is despite the fact they have just been sued and have paid out the claim! You had better contact them and tell them to stop being stupid! Furthermore this is an example of an inaccurate date processing and therefore a breach of the data protection act. You had better inform you clients what is coming. And as a matter of courtesy to you, I am letting you know that I shall be sending a copy of your application notice to the SRA along with a formal complaint. Enclosures: claim number XXX particulars of claim application notice including proposed defence. copy of judgement dated XXX. CC Hilary Ross, DWF law UK regional managing partner cc: Solicitors Regulation Authority

How about something like this. Please check it over. Please suggest any amendments – additions and subtractions or any concerns. Please let us have a final look at it before you send it out. Don't do your usual stuff of rushing off and wasting the work that we put in. Please also note that there will be enclosures – in particular the application notice that he put in with his ridiculous and highly improper proposed defence against a particulars of claim which she has never seen. The enclosures will also include a copy of your response which you sent to him. As you can see, the final version of this letter should be sent to the dealership, to the finance company, and of course to Jonathan Hall. Also a copy to the DWF managing partner who as far as I can make out is probably Hilary Ross UK&I Regional Managing Partner United Kingdom T:+44 (0)3333 20 32 10 M:+44 (0)7712 899715 E:hilary.ross@dwf.law I would suggest that you send this letter on 28 February – which is Wednesday. Wait until the afternoon so you can be certain that you don't get anything through the post in the morning. If you get calls from the dealership then then just say that the matter is in hand and refuse to speak to them. I know that this seems a lot correspondence to send out – but we need to not this on the head. It seems that nobody is talking to anybody. The dealership doesn't know what's going on, the motor finance company doesn't know what's going on, Jonathan Hall certainly doesn't seem to know what's going on. You have to take control and you need a file which shows that you have informed everybody. The everybody is in the picture. You will notice that at the bottom we have proposed to take a legal action on the data protection breach in 15 days. You've been through this before so you should find it much easier. It will only be a very small claim to begin with. I think it costs about £35 to begin the claim. Please be certain that you are prepared to take this action on day 15. As you know it's not a bluff any more. If you don't like the style of the letter above then modify – but it expresses anger and also this respect. They will never have received a letter like it and that is no accident. If the letter is not to your taste then please change what you think you need and then let us have the final version. As usual, we may come up with one or two extra ideas so for once, please don't send it off without running it past us first.

Hello. I have just received my 1st letter from DWF stating the amount I'm supposed to pay. I attach the letter. Please do let me know what I'm supposed to do. I have already read about ignoring it but I'm a bit scared ignoring it. I want to reiterate at this point that all the stolen goods were returned to the store, they actually never left the building as I was caught at the door. I only left with the goods that I actually had paid. Do we know for how many months these letters will keep coming? Like an average as I know that each case might be unique. Also will there be any issue with my status? as I am not British, I'm European with settled status. Bests, DWF 1st Letter.pdf

Hi, I received a letter regarding an adidas return back in May, I sent them an email with my confirmation from adidas saying they received my return. But I have received a 2nd letter from DWF saying that the tracking says it was rejected at whatehouse and returned to sender(order was returned in october and tracking says rejected in january). These items weren't returned to me and dwf have said they will seek instruction from adidas to proceed with court action. I'm not really sure what to do, should I email dwf with the confirmation email from adidas like previously? Whenever I contact adidas they say just to contact dwf and not them All PDF Maker 20221028 11.17.49.pdf

Hi, i got a letter from dwf requesting money for a adidas order i returned back in october 2021. they sent me the letter 3 days ago. i have all the proof of sending the items back to them, and all the emails they sent me saying weve received the items and processed the refund. i rang up adidas and they checked the order and told me it looks fine, and said to ring dwf and tell them to close it. yesterday i rang dwf, and told them the order has been returned and refunded by adidas themselves. i have all the proof. they then tell me they are going to contact royal mail and see what was sent back. she then said theyve put my case on hold, and they will be in contact with me. any advice on what to do next, do i email dwf with all the evidence i have. i have seen similar cases like this on the internet and this website. a lot of people are saying to ignore the letters as they are a powerless company. what can dwf actually do with these letters or are they just trying to squeeze out money from you. any help would be appreciated. thank you

own thread created. cant hurt you at all. it is not a fine and never pay anyone like RLP/DWF or alike anything, if you get any letters..ignore them, it's a scam. dx

its not a FINE, be very very clear on that. only a magistrates court can fine anyone and asda nor DWF or whomever, have zero power to do so nor now refer it to the police then to CPS to do so. they are and will not be remotely interested. its quite a region thing using your own bags, where i am, everyone does that , and no-one bats an eyelid. forget it go get on with your life. dx

is this no hearing evicence from them? Is the hearing on march 1? Did you contact them by email to make them aware you don't have anything from DWF?

Day before hearing and still nothing from DWF Just received an email from the CC however advising that, due to DJ having another hearing at 10:00, the hearing has now moved to 11:30

Funny you should say this, I know of a case where DWF didn’t provide the documents they intended to rely on in court within the 14 day deadline but the defendant did. A few days after this, DWF applied for extra time as they were working on agreement with Royal Mail which resulted in a longer time. I suspect DWF are using this as a tactic to see what evidence you have and then countering against it. The judge allowed this extra time coincidentally. It stinks.

Hi, this is the 4th letter I have now had from dwf regarding a debt I apparently owe adidas from October 2021. I have sent a screenshot to dwf from adidas saying to ignore dwf but they do not give up. All items were returned on October 2021 and after checking tracking , returned to sender January 2022 which is not the case as I have not had anything back. This is why adidas are chasing me . Is there a way I can report or anything? 4th letter is different heading to 1st 3 .

you weren't stopped at the time on the day, so the police would not be the first point of contact to you now. never seen nor heard of the police knocking on doors. mostly gang members AND the police were called when caught in store. i very much doubt that unless it was for £100's or £1000's of in store theft. yours is not serious to them. and over many occasions. not worth the staff time to find them all and tot up your total 'theft' . nope. they dont even know who you are and the store/security staff most certainly under LAWS cannot pass your details on to anyone other than the police. if these RLP/DWF retail loss scammers latterly write i'd be seriously questioning their GDPR right to do this. never ever heard of it ever happening . i used to work with in store/shopping centre security CCTV for +25yrs. never once did this happen to a joe public on theft that wasnt +£1000's worth. dx

Agree that RLP / DWF not a concern. Have they tried anything on (other than hollow threats) since the spanking they got on the Oxford case? Re: wages / time / expense. If the OP used the same payment card (or loyalty card) that might give loss prevention precise time / date stamps, meaning they can focus in to establish the scale of loss quite quickly. If large scale then they might view the time required as worthwhile.

i see where you are going..but.. the store staff (wages expense) hours to search (if still existing) CCTV footage was available far out weighs the loss via the 'thefts'. and any later external scammers like RLP/DWF etc can never have such access under GDPR. what really disturbs me is the OP's historic attitude. dx

Received nothing from DWF today I have been reading that they can ask court for “relief of sanctions” ?

I may be wrong here but i think so long as the court gets theirs you can send your one to the claimant 1st class post on the working day before its due (by which time it is too late for DWF to counter as there's will be due by then) so long as you get proof of postage

I have drafted a response. Please check it. Let me know if there is anything missing. If there is anything incorrect. And of course if you're happy to send it out and if the proposal is acceptable to you. You shouldn't bank on it being accepted by the other side but it also states your position very clearly and what your approach will be and what your arguments will be if they insist on it going to court. When did you receive the application notice? We need to get this out to the other side quickly. I am aware that other people on this thread have suggested that you should simply ignore them. Normally we would ignore these DWF solicitors who seem to get a lot of their work from bounty hunting. However, this time they have actually begun a legal process rather than simply making threats and so I think that we need to engage. I think failure to engage, failing to operate, failure to try and figure out a way forward will not necessarily count in your favour. It's a long letter. Also please be very careful about possible typos. I dictate everything and I don't necessarily proof read very well. At the end of the day if the letter goes out it goes under your name and if there is anything embarrassing it then it will be down to you – not down to me. Dear Jonathan Hall.docx

dwf the same lot that make up fake civil restoration shoplifting claims. utterly useless this could be a walk in the park. dx

Maybe a daft question, but getting closer the time and started to worry / panic So when you have done your magic, I send a copy of that plus my 13 bits of evidence from Adidas to DWF and the court. ?

just like RLP and DWF you ignore these people . just a fake money making scheme. do not react in anyway inc returning the letter. you've scanned it now shred it give it to your pet hamster for bedding.

Hi, I just received a second letter from DWF stating that I have a balance of £4kish to pay and "should you fail to contact us and come to a suitable arrangement for payment of the arrears within the next 10 days our client may consider further action to recover the monies owing to them. This may include issuing of Court Proceedings which will incur additional costs which you may be liable for". I am wondering how true this statement is and if I should contact them to sort it out because the sentiment on this website is that I should just ignore and they can not take me to court. Looking forward to your replies.

Hi, I'm aware that there are many other posts akin to this but I have received this letter and was wondering what to do? I thought that DWF couldn't take further action with CCJ and credit scores? Are these empty threats? Thanks llll.pdf

I have today received a further letter from DWF, once again stating that the hearing is taking place in Liverpool. I have double checked this with Newcastle County Court and it is definitely taking place in Newcastle This time they have made a final offer and are willing to accept 750.00, which I will obviously decline Back on post number 12 the offer was made to assist in “sharpen” my defence and I guess I am at that stage now so calling out for any assistance you can offer please