A recent ruling on a case brought against British Gas should give Platte cause for thought. The ruling in the case of Ferguson v British Gas does seem to open up as a real possibility that other companies could find themselves in Court on charges of harassment in the way they deal with customers or other consumers in the way they try to collect perceived debts.
The case was brought under the Protection from Harassment Act, which created a civil and a criminal offence of harassment. That law says:
"A person must not pursue a course of conduct -
(a) which amounts to harassment of another, and
(b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other."
This forum has asked in the past whether the apparently aggressive way that Platte allegedly pursues people that it has deemed liable for payment constitutes harassment. We've had several reports from forum members that Platte staff are aggressive and threatening. We've also had many reports of people being sent letters and a page of “pre-submission†information by Platte which could, to the unwary, have been construed as coming from “Issuing Court Northampton County Court†(although in fact they did not). Such communications could well be construed by a reasonable person as constituting harassment or a threat. Now we have reports of people being sent letters from Platte pursuing payment and which state:
"Failure to make the above payment within seven days from the date of this letter will result in us forwarding this debt onto Oriel Collections our appointed agents and
will incur an additional £25.00 administration fee."
This might be construed as Platte using the threat of additional charges to prompt people into making a payment regardless of whether or not they feel they are indebted to Platte. We also have many subsequent reports of people receiving demands for money on Platte's behalf by Oriel Collections Ltd.
In the case being reported against British Gas, not only was the organisation forced to pay their own and the litigant's legal fees but they also made an undisclosed financial settlement to Ms Ferguson.
I wonder just how deep are Platte's coffers in the event of them being pursued for harassment?
The case is reported
here. It makes an interesting read.
