A Brighton Boy Blogs

For anyone who read my original blog post Help Corporal Harry, I thought I’d let you know what has happened since.

1. The Facebook page has had almost 3000 likes.
2. The local and national press & media has covered the story in some detail.
3. A petition was set up to contend that “MOD should fund charities that treat ex-forces personnel in jail with PTSD” – sign the petition here
4. Harry has had some visits from PTSD counsellors, and has started to feel a little more positive in the light of all the support from the public.
5. Harry’s trial was on January 4th, at which he was found guilty of Theft of Gun, Theft of one round of ammunition and Possession of a prohibited weapon; however charges of Theft of box magazine and Possession of firearm with intent to cause fear of violence were dropped.
6. Harry’s sentencing hearing was due to take place on Monday 11th February, but has now been delayed until 18th February for reasons unknown, but hopefully connected to additional representations and appeals for clemency
7. Several Members of Parliament have been contacted; my MP, Caroline Lucas wrote back to me saying:

Dear Jon,

A belated thank you for your message and my apologies for not writing back to you sooner. I receive a vast amount of correspondence and that can create delays at especially busy times.

I have been appalled by the treatment of Corporal Killick and have written to the Ministry of Defence about his case. I urged the Minister to intervene to ensure that Cpl Killick gets the long overdue help and support he needs, rather than a prison sentence. I also argued that this case highlights ongoing failures to properly support soldiers that are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that the Government needs to address this as a matter of urgency.

I understand the court is due to rule next week and I have asked the Minister to respond before that date. I will be in touch again as soon as I hear anything and do let me know if you need any further information in the meantime.

Best wishes,

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion

House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

If you’d like to Help Harry, the best way is by spreading the word and raising awareness – and the best way of doing that is to visit the Help Harry page on Facebook, click the “Like” button, and then share their posts on your Facebook timeline.

I wanted to like it, I really did. But Windows 8 promised much and delivered only disappointment. Windows 7 is much better, and is going back on all my PCs.

Here’s the new features of Windows 8:

1. A confusing start menu
2. The inability to perform a single search across all documents, and data stored in Outlook and OneNote.
3. Faster startup

In other words, Microsoft is inviting its users to:

1. Spend money on a new operating system
2. Spend time and money installing a new operating system
3. Wave bye-bye to a remarkably useful piece of business functionality, thus making one’s working life less efficient

No thanks, Microsoft. Seriously, it’s OK. You do it if you want to, I’ll just stick with this much more useful set of stuff you used to offer me, when you appeared to care how efficiently I worked.

And what does Microsoft have to say on the matter? Essentially this… “people didn’t use it, so we removed it”.

So much for intelligence… in both senses of the word.

Corporal Harry Killick

My friend Harry Killick was a corporal in the Territorial Army. I last saw him at his farewell dinner just before he went to Afghanistan. While he was in Afghanistan he saw active service and returned with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, having survived an attack on his patrol. Finding it harder and harder to put it all behind him, and suffering from ever more vivid flashbacks, he took a gun from the barracks with the sole intention of taking his own life, and is now imprisoned and not receiving appropriate psychiatric treatment. His family and friends have started an awareness campaign which seeks initially to ensure that Harry receives the best treatment for his PTSD and that his sentence is kept to a minimum.

Your support would be greatly appreciated. Until it is clearer what can be done to change things for the better, please publicise the social media links below so that as wide an audience as possible can be updated with news as it arrives:

1. Please go and “Like” the Facebook page  facebook.com/corporalharry, and share it wherever you can (see screenshot below). You can share it on pages as well as on your own timeline.
2. Please follow the Twitter page  twitter.com/Corporal_Harry and retweet significant tweets

How To Share Facebook Page properly

When my company first started to trade with EU countries outside the UK, we started to receive EC sales list forms from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. Stupidly, we didn’t really register that we had to do anything apart from the declaration about EU sales on the VAT returns. Eventually we got a letter through telling us we had to pay a £500 civil penalty for failing to submit EC Sales Lists.

OK, stupid us, fair enough. So we paid it. A £500 fine, paid.

We also applied to the HMRC for the facility to submit our EC Sales Lists electronically via their web site, and when this facility eventually came through, we caught up in full with our EC Sales Lists backlog. But not before HMRC had slapped another £1000 of civil penalties on our account.

£1500 of fines for what? Had we evaded tax? No. Had we underpaid? No. Had we defrauded HMRC? No. We had merely failed to fill in a few pieces of red tape.

Let’s put this into perspective. Vodaphone underpaid their VAT by some £7bn. Yes, SEVEN BILLION pounds of underpaid VAT, and that’s perfectly OK with the HMRC. But if a small company fails to fill in a few bureaucratic forms, it’s a £1500 fine. Even after we’ve caught up with the red tape, AND paid the original fine. It’s disgusting.

What’s even worse is that although the entire case is still very much in dispute – at the independent review stage – the HMRC has now sent a debt collection company, Rossendales, after us. This rudely spoken bunch of incompetent heavies can’t even talk to us because whenever we go through their security process, the phone number we give them is apparently different from that given to them by HMRC even though it’s actually our correct telephone number.

So by way of allowing idiots to display their idiocy to the world as indeed they should, here’s the HMRC telling me it’s under review (expected completion 18th November) and Rossendales telling me to pay up within seven days (25th October)…

Rossendales – premature debt collection letter on behalf of HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs – civil penalty appeal review

OK, I’ve talked about the dire state of our economy, which is what should really matter to all of us, particularly those in power.

But let’s look at that one incident which has caused so much jabber and the use of so many hours of broadcast time and published pages. An MP, Andrew Mitchell, who has left on his bike through the main exit of Downing Street many times previously, is stopped by a police officer and told to leave by the pedestrian exit. What a petty, jumped-up, officious little jobs-worth! Yes, I mean the police officer, not the MP. What possible justification could he have for doing this apart from asserting his own sense of self-importance? What law was he attempting to uphold? The MP concerned had every right to be angry. But what a waste of time and money over something so ridiculously petty. Endless hours of wasted airtime & pages of newsprint. Yes, police officers deserve respect just like everybody else, including bike-riding MPs going through the gate they’ve always used. But don’t demand respect when you’ve shown none.

Let’s get this straight. The police are civilians in uniform, although they sometimes tend to let the power go to their heads because, after all, power corrupts. In certain cases of course, the very power the police are granted attracts the wrong individuals into the police force in the first place, like Simon Harwood, the one who killed Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protest. They like to see themselves as “The Law” but in fact they are nothing of the kind – they don’t make laws, they don’t test laws and they don’t execute laws. That’s for parliament and the judiciary. The police force I’ve born witness to is a place of a majority of honourable hard working people whose working lives are beset by the effects of officers who get drunk on power, individuals who indulge in corruption or nepotism or violence, and those who engage in rumour-mongering, or coaching & falsifying statements. Worst of all are the ones who protect those guilty of repeated offences, which occurred in the case of Simon Harwood; if he had been dismissed earlier, Ian Tomlinson would be alive today. Although in the minority, these incidents are destroying the reputation of the police.

Don’t make the MP apologise to the police. Make the policeman concerned stand up and justify his own actions, or go and find a new job where he won’t do any more damage. Please… for the sake of the police force and its reputation, as well as for the cohesion of our society. The misuse of power destroys respect, and without respect there is no authority, and in turn no power to effect change.

So here’s a thing… you’re in a damaged vehicle at high speed… there’s an experienced driver at the wheel… and you tear him away from what he does best, replacing him with someone who smiles nicely but has never driven a vehicle before. Does that make sense? No. But nonetheless, it’s what Britain did on the last General Election.

And now? It’s exactly as Gordon Brown predicted. A double-dip recession, followed by stagnation. And what do our fine politicians do? Yes… that’s right… they engage in petty squabbling and summary tinkering which is akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Worst of all, the only thing we seem to be able to talk about is what one MP may or may not have said to a police officer in an argument over which exit to use. Don’t we have more important things to talk about? Like how to save our economy? No. Apparently not. Let’s dwell on something of no importance whatsoever instead, it’s much less scary than having to face the real issues.

But will smoke & mirrors save David Cameron and his little childhood aristocratic friend Gideon “George” Osborne? Yes. Probably. Because the people of Britain have proved that they are actually that stupid.

See also People, Politics & the State of Britain, which I wrote shortly before the General Election.

For anyone fighting an unfair, unjustified or illegal PCN from Brighton & Hove City Council’s illustrious parking department, you may be interested to know that my appeal with the Parking Tribunal (now properly named the Traffic Penalty Tribunal) won by default because the Council didn’t even bother to present any evidence to the Tribunal.

Mine was a case of being accused of parking in a loading bay at 06:30 in the morning whilst not loading, whereas in fact I was loading – see also the original posts Testing the Parking Tribunal and Brighton & Hove Parking – criminal racket in disguise

So… you park in a car park where there are no clear signs of how you should pay or how much you should pay, or indeed to whom you should pay it. Then you get a threatening letter some time later charging a fine for “illegal” parking. Then the debt collector’s letters start, then the solicitor’s letters, and ultimately the threatening, intimidating phone calls. I bet the majority of you will just pay up. And I’m not being sexist here, but most of the people who pay up will be female – they’re just so easy for these telephone debt collectors to intimidate. That’s the reason this racket continues to grow into a multi-million pound business.

I had just such a run-in with Meteor Parking at Brighton Station car park. Visit the car park and you’ll see entry and exit barrier machines all wrapped up in plastic with their barriers removed, as if they’re now disused, which in fact they are. You’ll see cameras dotted about. But until recently you wouldn’t have seen clear signage that says whose car park this is, how much it costs and displaying clear terms and conditions, and it’s debateable whether they’re clear even now. Even if you did see such things, merely parking in the car park would not represent a clear breach of contract – because under UK law you cannot unwittingly enter into any contract, or be tricked into entering into one.

So when you get the “fine”, be very clear in your mind. Though it’s made to look threatening, and as similar as possible to something from the Police or government, that’s just the first part of the process of intimidation. It’s not a fine. A fine can only be levied by an organisation authorised by statute, that is when a law has been passed or a license granted by government to collect such a fine. Meteor Parking is not. Nor are a whole host of other parking companies (Park Direct Ltd, TCP, UK Parking Control, Euro Car Parks etc) which have sprung up over the past 20 years. All they can do is issue you with an invoice, and even then it’s fraudulent if there’s not a clear contract that you’ve entered into with your full knowledge.

So let’s turn to the debt collectors – Roxburghe – well, apart from sending a threatening letter or two, they were pretty ineffectual. The worrying one is “Graham White Solicitors”. Check their records. They have one solicitor listed – one Michael David Sobell, who was admitted as a solicitor in 1962 – http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor/view=solicitordetails.law?id=183218&orgid=272121&searchType=L. But you’ll never hear from him… instead you get letters threatening you, intimidating you, and even adding extra charges from nowhere for “administration” or “costs”. Then you get calls – several per week – what sounds like and is clearly a busy call centre, staffed by rather cocky, pushy chaps claiming to represent Graham White Solicitors who will desperately try to justify their attempts to get you to pay up with a credit card over the phone. These are not solicitors – nor paralegals – nor legal secretaries. These are just call centre debt collectors. They quote laws that don’t exist. They claim powers for authorities who either don’t exist or who have no such powers (like the British Parking Association who, it was claimed, have the power to license or shut down ANY car park in the UK – which they don’t – they’re just a professional association). They say you’ve parked “illegally”, which suggests that you’re in breach of some sort of parking control legislation – but at the most it’s a minor breach of an implicit, assumed contract. They will threaten your credit rating. They will threaten civil litigation, small claims court, county court judgements (CCJs) – anything they can use to worry you into paying. One complete idiot even mentioned getting points on my driving license if I didn’t pay up! Eventually they’ll even start offering you discounts if you pay right now – bit desperate, eh? They really don’t like it when you actually know more than they do – which generally isn’t hard, if you’ve done your research. Several times they’ve lost their temper and put the phone down on me.

Feeling alone? Don’t. Look here…  http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2329119&page=1 - and see that there are lots of people in the same position. Let’s use some logic for a moment – through all this I have been in contact with a whole host of people employed solely to collect money on a rather dodgy principle of law. If this wasn’t a huge money-making enterprise, how on earth could they afford all this? Go-Ahead sold Meteor Parking to Vinci Park Services in September 2010 for a whopping £11M. Then there’s Graham White Solicitors – all those employees, all that effort. And so much desperation in their tactics. So please don’t be intimidated into paying if you don’t think you should.

Oh, and… this is to the Law Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman. If you’re fed up with your noble profession being viewed in a negative light; if you’d like to be seen by the public as an honourable, trustworthy profession… well, you know what to do. Regulate your solicitors. Put your house in order.

N.B. The firm Graham White Solicitors mentioned in this article is Graham White Solicitors of Manor House, Lavender Park Road, West Byfleet, KT14 6ND, tel 01932 332 020, fax 01932 352 617 specialising in Civil Litigation, Commercial Property, Landlord and Tenant and is wholly unrelated to Graham White & Co of Bushey, Herts.

Update, February 2012: For more than six months I’ve heard nothing more from Roxburghe or Graham White Solicitors, or indeed Meteor Parking. Today I sent an email to The Law Society, because I know if I was leading a professional body like the Law Society, I’d be pretty damned annoyed about someone taking the good name of the profession in vain like the so-called “Graham White Solicitors”.

Update, October 2012: The law has changed where parking on private land is concerned. There’s a very good summary on The AA’s private parking page.

Brighton Parking Restriction Notice

Today is Sunday. The parking restrictions on my road are clearly displayed as Mon-Fri noon-1pm. There are very faded, patchy single & double yellow lines which haven’t been repainted for years, and a few months ago there were Council notices tied to lamp posts about lifting parking restrictions to allow more parking locally. So what was a traffic warden doing walking up & down issuing parking tickets? The Council is probably hoping that people are idiots who get scared into paying up even when they don’t have to. Hopefully they’re wrong.

A parking ticket (PCN) illegally issued by Brighton & Hove City Council

So, Brighton & Hove City Council – please tell us – what will it take to stop you and your imbeciles from wasting everyone’s time and money with these continued attempts to extort money from people fraudulently?

After I reported my parking ticket woes in my post entitled Brighton & Hove Parking – A Criminal Racket in Disguise, I appealed the PCN and got a rejection notice from the Council. No surprise there – after all they have to earn their money from somewhere, even if it’s from fraud.

Well, my fellow business breakfast club members were up in arms at the claims by Brighton & Hove City Council that I had parked my vehicle in a loading bay early one morning without any loading being observed. “But that was the morning of your presentation” one said, “I saw you unloading all your kit”. Others agreed and were outraged at Brighton & Hove City Council’s blatant attempt at criminal fraud.

So, one by one they submitted signed witness statements for me to forward to the Parking Tribunal. Unfortunately the rejection notice had arrived whilst I was away, which didn’t help, particularly as they give you a measly 28 days to bring the case to the notice of the Parking Tribunal. Not a lot when you have to gather evidence from disparate sources. But why should I be surprised when the vested interests of the multi-million pound parking racket are at stake, that everything should be stacked in their favour and run to their schedule?

So, now I await the outcome of the Tribunal and I’ll let you know when it arrives.

Some time later: Well, I have to report that Brighton and Hove City Council didn’t even bother trying to defend my appeal, and so the Parking Tribunal found in my favour by default. This indicates that the council knew all along that it didn’t have a leg to stand on & was just hanging on in the vain hope that I would shut up, give up and pay up.