Sutcliffe Solicitors?

[tornado27]

Having posted my SAR 04/03/2007 I got the standard letters of reply (Charges were fair we will get back to you soon) blah blah. After approx 30 of the 40 day period sent another letter reminding them the statments were almost due and as my cheque hadn't been cashed asking what the hold up was. Got a reply 7 days later informing me my complaint was being investigated and they would be in contact soon.

I then had to go and work away until last week and expected my statements to be sat on the door-mat upon my return, but alas no. However, I did have a letter from Sutcliffe Solicitors offering me £200 (Based in the Leeds Quality and Advice section) if I would drop the claim (original conservative estimate £1500 based on previous 12 months statements I had retained) Has anyone else heard from these Solicitors as I have found no referance to them in any of the other threads?

[tornado27]

Have now sent Sutcliffe Solicitors a letter declining the offer and advising them of thier clients failure to comply with the DPA. Have given them a final 7 days to get me my statements or I will be going to the national newspapers as i feel its now a matter of 'public interest' as they have taken over twice the time allowed under the DPA. Has anyone else had such a lengthy wait?

[Trinity58]

Hi Tornado27,

 

These Solicitors are a disgrace to their profession!!! They called my Mum saying they were from the Courts and needed to speak to me urgently. I had no idea why the Courts would be trying to get hold of me so I told my Mum that if they rang again to give them my mobile number and to call me at apprx 12pm the following day.

 

Sure enough at apprx 12:15pm I got a call from a women, she didn't say who she was at first she just asked me to confirm who I was. I then asked her who she was and what was the reason for the call. She then explained (rather arrogantly) who she was. I was furious.

 

She completely denied she had told to my Mum that she was from the Courts and said it must have been someone else. (That 'someone else' from the Court never called back).

 

This woman's attitude was appalling. She used bullying tactics and was trying to frighten me.

 

I told her that she couldn't bully me and I wasn't frightened of her and I knew exactly what they could do to me.

 

I told her never to call me again and I wanted to speak to her superior.

 

The next day a woman rang me. She was on the defensive immediately, she didn't ask me why I wanted to speak to her she just ranted on about my debt. I let her rant on and when she'd finished I asked her why they had pretended to be from the Court, again she denied it.

 

I didn't get another call from them just loads of letters and charging me £20.00 a time for the priviledge.

 

These people are not to be trusted.

 

Trinity58

[twoofus]

I completely agree Trinity58,

 

Whilst my account was in dispute YB passed my account to these solisitors.

 

And i can agree they are rude and arrogant, they called me at work insisting payment, i tried to explain the account was in dispute but they didnt want to know.(adding £20 charges)

 

I then had to tell them if they harrassed me any more at work i would take the matter further, and never heard from them again.

 

I went to court on Tuesday and WON this included the £20.00 charges from them.

 

Twoofus

[Trinity58]

Hi twoofus,

 

Congratulations!!! I have been watching your case with interest.

 

So are you saying I can claim all these £20.00 charges back? They must owe me £100's

 

Trinity58

[twoofus]

Included in my settlement offer was charges i had not already applied for, and my terms was that they paid these, or i would be making a seperate claim for them.

 

And to my surprise they did so i paid my O/D only, everything the account incurred in charges i was given back.( some of these charges came from Sutcliffes).

 

So i would think you can claim these charges back but i would ask Caros advice on this.

 

Sorry i cant be more help.

 

Twoofus

[tornado27]

Thankyou both for your replies as I had never seen any referances to these cowboys prior your post. Thankfully they dont have my contact number only my address so all correspondance from them must be by post. I dont understand why they are involved as my account is now run in credit at all times, yet it was a huge shock to recieve and offer (even if insulting) prior to me actually recieving my statements. I have not heard of this happening at such an early stage before and will be very interested to hear if anyone else has had such an early offer and what these 'Cowboys' next move may be.

 

Many thanks once again, your info is priceless in keeping me one step ahead.

[diddled]

Who exactly are Jeremy Sutcliffe solicitors

1. I cannot find this firm on the Law society's register

2. I cannot find them on Companies House website

3. I cannot find them on the Information Commissioners register of Data

Controllers

4. Can anyone shed a bit more light on this outfit please?

[tornado27]

Hi there diddled,

 

Have you had any correspondance from this lot?

 

I Googled them and the only proper hit I got was this one from LouC on a thread posted by Trundlecat on this very site!

 

Here is a wee quote....

 

"Hi there, my first post and I'll probably get lynched!!! A few years ago I worked in the YB Collections Department, it isn't owned by Jeremy Sutcliffe Solicitors, it is in fact the other way round, Jeremy Sutcliffe is YB collection's in house solicitor"

 

Sheds a little light on them but still amazingly little real info on them considering we are in an age of data disclosure..

[twoofus]

Hi Diddled,

 

Jeremy Sutcliffe & Co Solicitors

PO Box 653

Brunswick Point

Wade Lane

Leeds

LS1 9BL

 

When both mine and my husbands account went into dispute and we refused to pay them any more charges, our accounts was passed to the above.

 

And for every letter they send you, they charge you £20.00.

 

They are very rude and unhelpfull, and i had to threaten legal action for harrassment, for them to stop calling me at work. Which may i add was very embarassing.

 

And in their letters state, Your account has now been debited with an administration charge of £20.00 pursuant to your contract with our client. Additional charges at this level may be debited to your account if we have to write to you again, or if we have to take other action in order to recover the balance due to our client.

 

Twoofus

[Trinity58]

Hi Tornado27

 

Here's an update.

 

Rang Clydsdale in Scotland and asked to speak to their Compliance Officer, the receptionist said her supervisor had told her refer any calls regarding SAR's to their Leeds office.

 

I rang the Leeds office and spoke the Manager of the 'Advice Quality Unit'. his name is Dave Robinson. He told me that they were having problems dealing with all the requests (which we already know about) I reminded him that YB had made billions from it's customer's and they should employ more staff. He said that it wasn't YB's staff that were dealing with these requests that it was an outside supplier called 'CSH'. I asked him what 'CHS' stood for and he didn't know!!! Anyway, CHS are an outside company who deal with the retrieval of statements.

 

He also told me that they had just changed suppliers because the original company they were using could not handle the demand. He also informed me that 'CHS' had said that everyone who has requested statements will get them before 20th June 2007. Mine was somewhere in the middle of the list.

 

So, according to Dave Robinson, everyone should have their statements by next Wednesday. If I don't receive them then I'll call Dave Robinson back and ask him why.

 

I told him that I've been getting harrassment letters and phone calls from Sutcliffe Solicitors and he told me to complain about them. That's all well and good but the Solicitors deny that they are using intimidation when they're phoning people. How can an individual prove that they're using intimidation tactics when it's a phone call, it's your word against theirs.

 

Does anyone know if I could ask the Solicitor for a copy of their transcripts as I believe that all calls are recorded?

 

Trinity58

[diddled]

Just found this relating to Jeremy Sutcliffe

 

He certainly gets around!!!!!!!!!

 

Memorandum submitted by Jeremy Sutcliffe (TRI 15)

Uncorrected Evidence 15

[tornado27]

Thanks alot for the info Trinny58,

 

I think a good bet would be if you could get your hands on some kind of recording device and keep it near your home phone, that way you can inform them they are being recorded next time they call, which I should imagine would change their agressive telephone manner.

 

I think it is very unlikely they would allow you such transcripts as they would claim they are for "Training purposes only" and probably deny the existance of any such recordings in the first place.

[tornado27]

Thanks Diddled,

 

Makes very interesting reading, think I will print a copy as I feel that by the time this thread is done, I will have a very useful dossier amassed regarding Sutcliffe Solicitors. (and a couple of thousand reasons to be cheerful)

[tornado27]

Thanks Twoofus,

 

Will have to keep an eye out for any addition money debited from my account for thier services. I DARE them to try it!

[diddled]

No prizes for guessing who the Baroness appointed to serve on the Advisory Group on Enforcement Service Delivery

 

Jeremy Sutcliffe - Senior Corporate Lawyer, Group Collections, National Australia Bank; Chairman, Civil Court Users Association; Member, Civil Justice Council Enforcement Sub-Committee

 

Business Credit News UK - 26/8/2001

[tornado27]

Hi Diddled

 

Seems if Jeremy Sutcliffe has a very highly honourable past, yet by the time his employees have finished disgracing his apparent good name it may be a very unenviable future!

 

Thanks

[diddled]

Just a thought- In the uncorrected evidence Jeremy Sutcliffe refers to Clydesdale Bank as his Scottish clients. If he is in the business of debt recovery shouldn't he have a consumer credit licence?

[Trinity58]

I once had a call from these cowboys and before the conversation started the woman on the other end of the phone warned me that the call was being monitored. When she'd finished I told her I was also recording the conversation. She sounded like she had swallowed her tongue!! She informed me that I needed a licence to record conversations so I told her to go ahead and do her worst!!!!

 

Trinity58

[tornado27]

Hi diddled,

 

Not quite sure how that side of things work but I will try to look into it this weekend, having searched around it seems they send an offer letter of £200 whether your claim is for £500 or whether its £5000, be interesting to see what correspondance (If any) I recieve from them in the next week or so.

[tornado27]

Hey there Trinity,

 

Dont think you require a license but pretty sure you must disclose the fact at the start, certainly think it would alter their attitude towards people and also make them more wary of calling people for no other reason than to harass them!

[Trinity58]

Hi T,

 

I don't think you need a license either. I wasn't recording by the way, I just wanted to see hear her reaction, and I believe it worked 'cos her attitude changed.

 

I saw a post somewhere from Bank Fodder which said you can buy a recording kit from Maplin's for £20.00, I don't think BF would encourgage this if it was illegal in some way. I going to buy one anyway.

 

Trinity

[twoofus]

Yes, you must inform the person you are going to be recording the conversation. Thats why they always do it at the start of the call.

[Leeds73]

I have had quite a bit of correspondence from Sutcliffes that I refuse to acknowledge. They are a part of the National Australia Bank Group as a simple check of the WHOIS database confirms. For those of you not au fait with WHOIS it's the internet domain name registry.

 

Domain name:

jeremysutcliffe.co.uk

 

Registrant:

National Australia Bank Group

 

Registrant type:

Unknown

 

Registrant's address:

Allerton House 55 Harrogate Road

Chapel Allerton

Leeds

LS7 3PX

GB

 

Registrar:

NetNames Limited [Tag = NETNAMES]

URL: Register domain names online, with registration experts NetNames

 

Relevant dates:

Registered on: 26-Apr-2000

Renewal date: 26-Apr-2008

Last updated: 29-May-2007

 

Registration status:

Registered until renewal date.

 

Name servers:

ns1.eu.nabgroup.com

ns2.eu.nabgroup.com

 

WHOIS lookup made at 01:33:50 18-Oct-2007

 

They will also use Fairhalsen Collections Ltd which shares the same registered office address as Brunswick Collection Services Ltd.

 

Brunswick dosen't proffer an email address or domain name but suprise suprise no points for guessing that Fairhalsen on WHOIS is exactly the same as above.

 

Domain name:

fairhalsen.co.uk

 

Registrant:

National Australia Bank Group

 

Registrant type:

Unknown

 

Registrant's address:

Allerton House 55 Harrogate Road

Chapel Allerton

Leeds

LS7 3PX

GB

 

Registrar:

NetNames Limited [Tag = NETNAMES]

URL: Register domain names online, with registration experts NetNames

 

Relevant dates:

Registered on: 26-Apr-2000

Renewal date: 26-Apr-2008

Last updated: 29-May-2007

 

Registration status:

Registered until renewal date.

 

Name servers:

ns1.eu.nabgroup.com

ns2.eu.nabgroup.com

 

WHOIS lookup made at 01:33:50 18-Oct-2007

 

This would appear to be industry standard across the whole of the banking market. The cost of outsourcing collection would put far too big a dent in the already vast profits of the Banks. Now with the power of the internet they are no longer safe to employ the bully-boy tactics to recover money.

 

The Yorkshire Bank has shut down 2 of my accounts now because I have threatened them with legal action for mismanagement of my accounts. Charges have been mysteriously paid off but a fair amount of damage has been caused by their incompetence. I still have one account in place but anomalities are being to show there too.

 

I was asked the other day when paying in, in a small but very busy branch if they could interest me in insurance? My laughter secured everyones attention and my reply in a loud enough voice for my audience to enjoy was "When you can manage my bank account properly, I might be interested in insurance" Needless to say the cashier went purple.

[scottish007]

Morning,

 

A quick question for you, i have had my loan passed to these people and am wondering if these people bought my debt or are working on behalf of Clydesdale bank?

 

Thanks