Mr Mustard ( mrmustard@zoho.com )

14 May 2013

13 May 2013

ICO: bite - Mrs Angry: bark - Mr Mustard: growl

Mr Mustard expects that you have read Mrs Angry's blog on the subject of her recent battle, alongside the ICO, to get some minutes, that were intended to be published, out of the grasping hands of Barnet Council. As a regular user of Freedom of Information, although hardly at all recently, Mr Mustard felt duty bound to add one of his experiences to the publicly available information.

In relation to Barnet Council now being on the naughty step, for, in essence, not following the law, it is interesting to note what the deputy Leader, Dan Thomas, told the local paper, The Barnet Press, which you can read here:

Deputy council leader Dan Thomas said: “It will be interesting to see how we can improve performance as in January to March this year our rate for responding in time was 99.5 per cent, one of the best in the UK." (Mr Mustard is not convinced)

Of course, having frustrated Mr Mustard's best efforts to get interesting information into the public domain by embarking on a series of responses that his questions were vexatious (which was apparently a spontaneous matter that no officer will admit to positively deciding), when the questions were anodyne and simple to respond to, the number of requests to respond to had been artificially depressed thus making better performance easier.

However, although the ICO said publicly that delay was the reason there are almost certainly other factors taken into account such as there being 10 live complaints with the Information Commissioner (possibly the most of any council) and a case with the First Tier Tribunal about which more later (the ICO reminded Barnet Council last week that they were behind timetable on providing the evidence packs to all parties - Mr Mustard is on time with his legal requirements) and so Dan's "we are almost perfect" remark focused only on a narrow element of FOI law. Maybe Daniel asked officers the wrong question or officers failed to mention their various other shortcomings which were not specifically raised - we can't expect Daniel to have gone into Governance and got his hands dirty taking a good look at the actual requests, can we?

Mr Mustard received an email from the FOI section this week but let us go through the history of the request in order.

3 December 2011 (yes, 18 months ago)

Question: Please provide all minutes of, reports of and briefing papers of the Council Directors Group which have been created or presented since 1 January 2010 (contrary to possible belief, when it comes to FOI the Barnet bloggers work alone - we all want the scoop!)

7 December 2011

Question acknowledged. Response due promptly (try not to laugh Mr Mustard) but in any event within 20 working days starting the day after receipt which would be about 10 January 2012 (all those bank holidays got in the way).

6 January 2012 - holding response

I can confirm that the Council holds the information you are requesting. I have been advised that the Council Directors Group meetings are held fortnightly and that the information you are requesting relates to about 40 meetings.

There is a possibility that information contained within the papers you have requested would satisfy the criteria for exemption under the FOIA and the documents have to be looked at by a senior officer in order to determine if this is the case. Due to the volume and nature of the materials we are unable to complete this exercise within the 20 working day deadline and estimate that this will take a significant amount of time. Our approach to this request will be to release the information in stages as we work through the documents.

I apologise for any inconvenience this delay may cause you.

19 January 2012 - Mr Mustard is very helpful.

Thank you for you response.

I do not wish to waste the council's time if the information turns out not to be of great interest. Might I suggest that you redact the minutes of the first two meetings (one at once if necessary) and send them to me and then I will hopefully be able to tell if I want the subsequent minutes or not.

Do you have an estimate of what a "significant amount of time" is? It might be helpful if you time yourself, or a colleague, redacting the first set of minutes.

7 February 2012 -from the council.

Thank you for your email below. Please accept my apologies for not responding sooner.

I note that you have refined your request to the first two set of minutes and I have passed this message along with your comment to time the process of redacting the set of minutes.

I will forward the minutes to you as soon as they are made available to me.

So the council are already a month behind the 20 day deadline and Mr Mustard tends not to routinely chase the council (he does have a life!).

21 June 2012 - the council wake up

Our records indicate that the information requests below which were allocated to the Corporate Governance Directorate are still outstanding,

#1031A - Corporate Governance (Deleted Posts)
#1169 - Council Directors Group
#1223 - Procurement consultants
#1170 PWC Report Names (Internal Review)

We are aware that there may also be a few requests outstanding with other services within the council.

While we do aim to respond to requests within 20 working days we may on this occasion have missed the deadline. The council is committed to improving its ability to comply with its statutory duties under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and, to this end, has implemented a new Freedom of Information case management system along with a continuing programme of raising awareness of officers’ duties under the FOIA.

In order to ensure that we respond to all outstanding requests and close off cases on the old system, we are writing to you to ask that you confirm that you are still interested in receiving a response or in the alternative to confirm your willingness to withdraw the request.

I would be grateful if you could respond to this email before June 29 2012; if we do not receive your response; we will assume that you have withdrawn your request and we will close the case on our system. (A council simply cannot withdraw your request for you!)

I look forward to your response.

2 Hours later:

I still require a response please, Mr Mustard.

later the same day:

Thank you for your prompt response. We will aim to fully respond to all the requests within the next 20 working days. (to requests that were already well overdue!).

Please accept my apologies on behalf of the council for the delays associated with your requests.

28 August 2012: Mr Mustard notices a response has still not been received and sends an email directly to the FOI officer handling his case.

I think I have been more than reasonable in waiting nearly 6 months for this simple task to be carried out.

I don't think my behaviour could be described as bullying or harassment if I were now to send this to the ICO, do you?

In response from the council governance officer:

I am out of the office until September 6, 2012; with no access to emails. Doh!

For FOI queries/advice please email foi@barnet.gov.uk (Mr Mustard thinks that emails should not be bounced back to the customer to take action - that is partly why management exist, to ensure all correspondence is dealt with in a timely manner)

28 August 2012: Mr Mustard sends the message again to the FOI inbox.

29 August 2012: A different officer (there are only 3 of them) responds: "Thank you for your email below of which I acknowledge safe receipt, and the contents of which have been noted." which means nothing at all.

27 September 2012: Still no reply so Mr Mustard sends a complaint to the Information Commissioner (ICO) as nearly a year has passed without his simple question getting any sort of a response.

14 November 2012: The ICO writes to Mr Mustard:

When considering complaints about delayed or failed responses to information requests our priority is to ensure requesters receive a response as quickly as possible (where one has not been provided) and to monitor any persistent trends which might indicate that a public authority was routinely failing to respond within the statutory 20 working days permitted under section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act.

We monitor complaints where a serious contravention of section 10 is recorded and where persistent contraventions occur we will consider placing a public authority on our monitoring programme.

The delay in this case has been brought to the attention of our Enforcement team for their further consideration.

I have written to the public authority to provide them with a copy of your original request, reminding them of their responsibilities and asking them to respond to you within 10 working days of receiving our letter.

and to Barnet Council:

Any public authority in receipt of such a request is under a duty to respond within 20 working days of receipt. As it is the case that you have not responded but acknowledged receipt of the request, we would ask that you now respond within 10 working days of receipt of this letter.

8 May 2013: The council woke up. Is it any wonder that the ICO has put Barnet Council on the naughty step when even after a prompt from the ICO they take 6 months to provide simple copy documents.

Mr Mustard was provided with 2 sets of minutes from January 2010. Here is the first one. There is a typo in the heading stated as 2009.

5 January 2010 Minutes of Barnet Council Directors group by MisterMustard

What is quite revealing about these minutes is that they contain a reference to the Judicial Review of the planned removal of wardens from sheltered housing (the very basis of that type of housing is that there is a warden!) which was all over the paper at the time which is pre Mr Mustard. The attitude of the council is not to change their policy but simply to do more consultation and then carry on as planned. We can expect the same with the New Support & Customer Services Organisation 10 year contract with Crapita.

What is also interesting is that the supposed "significant amount of time" to look at the documents appears not to have been significant at all, as there are no redactions, and the council did not tell Mr Mustard the time taken to check the first 2 sets of minutes which they doubtless would have if it was appreciable.

9 May 2013: away we go again.

Mr Mustard therefore asked for the rest of the documents and the 20 days clock in which to reply promptly has been set running again by Barnet Council. You never know, by 2015 Mr Mustard might even get them.

That naughty step is going to prove very hard to get off.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

10 May 2013

Mr Mustard's social gathering - parking tickets, FOI, beer etc

The second Monday of the month is nearly upon us and so it is time for another social gathering.

If you have a parking ticket problem, bring all, and I mean all including the envelopes, of your paperwork along to be scrutinised in fine detail. If that is done the parking ticket probably won't be up to the challenge. Mr Mustard will be handing out copies of the first version of his Guide to appealing your parking ticket and taking suggestions for what else should be included.

If you just want to soak up the atmosphere of being with eccentric individuals and discuss the rights and wrongs of the world, explain the off-side rule to Mrs Angry (you may be some time) or talk about books, theatre or film, starting a blog or anything you like, do please come along. If you don't have time for dinner at home before coming along, the Bohemia do proper food, Mr Mustard has sampled the crumble - it was great.

The Antic Bohemia is situated at 762-764 High Rd, Tally Ho, London, N12 9QH which is right across the road from that well known café, Café Buzz.

a good place for breakfast at any time of day.

Until Monday then, 13 May at 7pm until about 9pm as Mr M has to go then, but you can stay until closing time.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Keith is bang on the money

As you will have gathered this is a letter published in the Ham & High. Keith Martin is an elder statesman of Barnet and a local publisher. He has an insight into local affairs that is hard to match and was one of the occupiers of Friern Barnet library on the day it closed as naturally to a publisher of books they are important.

Mr Mustard guesses that he also holds local newspapers dear so do please visit the website and/or buy the paper. Although focused on Mampstead and Highgate (what, you never knew!) it does stray in the direction of Barnet sometimes.

Mr Mustard feels that it is likely that the irresponsible course will be followed. The appeal against the decision of Judge Underhill in respect of the NSCSO Judicial Review has now been submitted.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

9 May 2013

Greenacre Writers: 17-18 May - Truth & fiction

There are still tickets available. You don't want to miss out. Sadly Mr Mustard is already booked out for other events that weekend so can't attend but he hopes that lots of his readers will.

Greenacre Writers Literary Festival: Fri 17th-Sat 18th May 2013.

Truth and Fiction

Greenacre Writers are delighted to confirm the authors who will be appearing at the Greenacre Writers Literary Festival:

Fri 17th May 4.30-6.30pm Friern Barnet Community Library, Friern Barnet Road, N11 3DS.

Miriam Halahmy will be running a creative writing workshop:

'So you want to write for Kids!' Creative writing workshop with author and experienced facilitator Miriam Halahmy. Miriam will offer vital insights into the world of writing and publishing fiction for nine years to teens as well as offering some writing starters to get the creative juices flowing. All levels welcome, just bring pen, paper and the energy to write! Miriam's website Tickets £10.50

Miriam Halahmy has published short and long fiction for children, adults and teens, as well as poetry, book reviews and articles. Her debut Y.A. novel, Hidden, Meadowside Books, was nominated for the 2012 CILIP Carnegie Medal. She has published a second Y.A. novel, Illegal, Meadowside Books, 2012 and a third one is on the way. Miriam has run creative writing workshops for many years and is a mentor with Apprenticeships in Fiction, appraising manuscripts and guiding developing writers. Click here to Book Workshop

Fri 17th May 7-10pm Friern Barnet Community Library

Free event: Allen Ashley will be facilitating an Open Lit Mic:
Guest poet Sarah Doyle, CJ Flood and Miriam Halahmy will be appearing but this is your chance to shine too. We are opening slots to members of the writing community to showcase their work: greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Our venue for these two events is the fantastic Friern Barnet Community Library, the People's Library, which was closed by the council but has been reclaimed by the community. Come and see why.

Allen Ashley has published nine books as author or editor. In 2006 he won the British Fantasy Society Award for Best Anthology as editor of The Elastic Book Of Numbers (Elastic Press, 2005). Well known in the science fiction and fantasy arena, he is also a successful poet and wrote under a pseudonym for Time Out London for many years. Allen's website

Sarah Doyle’s poetry has been published in various anthologies, and in magazines such as Orbis, The Dawntreader and the Poetry Society’s Poetry News. She has been placed in several national poetry competitions. She is Poet-in-Residence to the Pre-Raphaelite Society, for whom she writes commissioned poetry and acts as a judge in their Poetry Prize; and she co-organises, co-hosts and performs in regular jazz-poetry event The Sunday Edition at Enfield’s Dugdale Theatre. Sarah's website

Sat 18th May 11-12.30pm, Trinity Church Centre, Finchley, N12 7NN

Josie O Pearse will be running a creative writing workshop.

'Life Writing and the Writing Life'. This workshop will look at practical techniques for writing from life. From planning what to write and how to begin, through to the deeper questions that help keep your writing on track. What is this about? Who is it for? Where does it end? And how do you fit your writing into a busy schedule? Bring questions, ideas, imagination, pen and paper.

Josie O Pearse has just completed a PhD at Cardiff University in creative and critical writing. She writes sexy romances under a pseudonym, Angel Strand, who has three novels published with Random House. Josie is also an artist and experiments in graphic stories. Tickets £ 8.50 Click to book Life-writing workshop

Sat 18th May 1.30-5.30pm, Trinity Church Centre, Finchley, N12 7NN

Entrance to festival is by ticket only £5.50 - Click here to get your ticket/s for Greenacre Writers Festival

SPEAKERS:

Sarah Harrison is the author of twenty five books and counting. She made her name with the bestselling The Flowers of the Field and its sequel A Flower That’s Free. Both have been reissued by Orion this year, with the third in the trilogy, The Wildflower Path, coming out in September. Sarah is also an entertainer, regularly performing in an all-woman revue, and winner of Silver Stand-Up’s Best Newcomer 2013. Sarah's website

Hailed as a brilliant talent by Jeffrey Deaver and 'a deeply human voice' by Peter James, Leigh Russell writes a bestselling series of psychological crime thrillers set in the UK. Cut Short (2009 was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award. Road Closed (2010) was voted a Top Read on Eurocrime. Dead End (2011) was voted a Best Crime Novel on Crime Time and was a Best Fiction Book of the Year in the Miami Examiner. Death Bed (2012) joined the earlier novels on the Kindle Bestseller list, reaching No 1 for female sleuths, and appearing in the Top 50 titles on WH Smith's Travel's Bestseller Chart. 2013 sees the publication of Stop Dead, the fifth tile in the Geraldine Steel series. Leigh's website

Gina Blaxill's first novel for young adults, Pretty Twisted, was published by Macmillan, and is an e-book best seller. Since then she has also released a second novel, Forget Me Never, with a third, Saving Silence, coming out later this year. Gina grew up in Finchley, in North London and studied English at Cambridge University, where she specialised in schoolgirl fiction and took part in a lot of musicals. These days she works in schools liaison, helping teenagers figure out the mysteries of higher education. Apart from writing she enjoys drawing comic art and exploring London and has big soft spots for dogs, stately homes and fruit. Gina on Twitter

C.J. Flood graduated from an MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 2010. Her dissertation, a section of Infinite Sky, won the Curtis Brown Award for best student as judged by a panel of agents. She was a mentee on the Jerwood/Arvon Mentoring Scheme, under Bernardine Evaristo, and a recipient of an Arts Council grant. Infinite Sky, her first novel, came out in February. The Telegraph called it "a powerful and impressive debut," The Guardian said it was "brilliantly visual and full of feeling" and The Times selected it as their children's book of the week. C. J. is currently working on her next novel, which will come out in February 2014.
C. J.'s website

Sat 18th May 4.30pm, Trinity Church, Finchley, N12 7NN

There will also be a panel with mediator, Allen Ashley, as well as guests, Alex Wheatle MBE, Dr Josie Pearse, Sarah Harrison, and Leigh Russell. They will be discussing Truth and Fiction.

Award-winning author Alex Wheatle MBE will be appearing on the festival panel, and will be the judge for this year's Greenacre Writers Short Story Competition.

Alex Wheatle is the author of several novels, some of them set in Brixton, where he grew up.

Born in London of Jamaican parents, his first book, Brixton Rock (1999), tells the story of a 16-year old boy of mixed race, in 1980s Brixton. Brixton Rock was adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in 2010. Its sequel, Brenton Brown, was published in 2011. His second novel, East of Acre Lane (2001), has a similar setting, and won a London Arts Board New Writers Award. A prequel, Island Songs, set in Jamaica, was published in 2005, and a sequel, Dirty South, in 2008. Other novels include The Seven Sisters (2002), in which the scene moves to Surrey in 1976, where four boys escape from an abusive life in a children's home; and Checkers (2003), written with Mark Parham, was published in 2003. In 2010, he wrote the one-man autobiographical performance, Uprising.Alex Wheatle was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008. More about Alex.

Greenacre Writers will be donating a portion of ticket sales to Trinity in May sponsored charity.

Linked event:
Dickens in Victorian Barnet.
Sun 12th May at 11.00am.

Guided walk with Paul Baker. Learn about Charles Dickens' connections with Finchley and the Borough of Barnet as well as local history and a touch of Victorian scandal.

Meet at High Barnet tube station outside booking office. Walks £8.00 payable directly to Paul Baker. Please e-mail pbaker54@hotmail.co.uk if you wish to join the walk. For more information see Paul's website

8 May 2013

Nutsville explain about parking tickets on private land

As you know Mr Mustard helps people with their Barnet Council parking woes and the appeal process. When friends get a private parking ticket he simply tells them to throw it in the bin. Here in this guest blog by Nutsville, visit their website for this particular post here (on Mr Mustard's visit to the home page all of the youtube clips played at once which is an assault on ones ears and he will mention it to the anonymous author of Nutsville) and then why not look back through their other very interesting and accurate blog posts.

Solicitor (S): Good morning Mr Weasel. What can I do for you today?

Parking Weasel Ltd’s Chairman (PWC): I would like to get my hands on the money Nutsville owes me for overstaying in a private car park where me and my company run the parking enforcement.

S: Ok. Just a couple of questions. Are you or your company the land owner?

PWC: No.

S: Do you have permission from the land owner to enforce on their land?

PWC: Yes

S: Do you have a contract with the land owner that establishes their loss?

PWC: It’s not their loss I’m worried about, it’s mine. That Nutsville bloke took me through the whole of that poxy Popla procedure, which incidentally cost me £27 + VAT that I will never see again, and even though his appeal was disallowed by Popla and he was ordered to pay me, he is now ignoring me and telling me that I should sue him in the courts to recover my money.

I’ve sent him loads of letters with BIG, RED SCARY WRITING on, and he still insists that I need to sue him. What I want to know is, now I’ve got my Popla judgment, why can’t I just register it with the court like the local authorities do with their Patas and TPT judgments, and then send my bailiff mates round to threaten him with menaces and make him cough up?

S: Unfortunately for you, Mr Nutsville is right. I will explain. You see, the ADJUDICATORS at Patas and the TPT draw their powers to make judgments on parking issues fom the Traffic Management Act 2004. Under that Act they can effectively make the equivalent of a judgment that a county court judge might make in civil proceedings. It is these equivalent county court judgments that are then registered with the county court (the TEC in Northampton) and which makes them enforceable, normally by way of sending the bailiffs round.

However, no such powers devolve from any Act of Parliament when it comes to Popla. Therefore the Popla ASSESSORS, (who incidentally the No To Mob have found out are actually 4 law students doing a bit of moonlighting) cannot order you to do anything. If someone like Mr Nutsville loses an appeal to Popla there will be a decision that says something like “In order to avoid any further action by the operator, payment of the £80 parking charge SHOULD be made within 14 days.

PWC: That’s right! That’s exactly the decision we got from Popla in the Nuts case, but he won’t pay up and insists I take him to court. So what exactly did I pay all that money to Popla for then?

S: Well nothing really. You see any Popla decision in the operator’s favour isn’t worth the paper it’s written on because it cannot be enforced in a court of law, either against Mr Nutsville, or anyone else come to that. However, if Popla had allowed Mr Nutsville’s appeal then you, like every other BPA Ltd operator in the Approved Operator Scheme, have no other right of appeal and you are bound by the decision of the law student that gave it.

PWC: So basically, what you’re saying is that Popla is just a smoke screen put up by the BPA Ltd in the hope that we can bully people into paying up, and that it has no real power?

S: That about sums it up.

PWC: So what did I pay £27 + VAT for then?

S: Perhaps you should ask the BPA Ltd about that. But anyway, all is not lost. You can still sue Mr Nutsville in the county court provided you can prove you have incurred a loss.

PWC: Now you’re talking! How do I do that then?

S: Well since you are not the land owner, you have to have a contract in place that proves that the land owner has lost money as a result of breaching the contract Mr Nutsville entered into with the land owner when he agreed to pay a Parking Charge for overstaying in the land owner’s car park.

PWC: And for those of us who speak English?

S: (Sigh). Right. Let’s break this down. Who is the landowner?

PWC: Morritesclidainsbury

S: Do you have a contract with them to enforce parking on their land?

PWC: Yes

S: In short, what are the terms of that contract?

PWC: They let my company dish out as many tickets as we want, then we get to keep most of the profits, and give them the rest.

S: In that case you can’t sue Mr Nutsville.

PWC: Why not?

S: Because you have no loss.

PWC: There you go with that bloody “loss” thing again! I’ve told you, I’VE LOST EIGHTY BLOODY QUID!!!

S: Who did you lose it to?

PWC: I keep telling you. Nutsville!

S: And how did you lose it to him?

PWC: Right! Well he came to the car park and arrived at 11.00am. He admits he read our signs which say that there is free parking for one hour and that if he stays longer he will contract with my company to pay an £80 Parking Charge. Nutsville stayed until 12.30pm and we are now enforcing that contract.

S: So far, so good. Now, if you want to sue Mr Nutsville for recovery in the county court you have to prove in your claim that you have actually lost something. You can’t have lost anything because you are not the landowner. Only the land owner can say they have lost something. You have lost nothing so you can’t sue Mr Nutsville. QED.

PWC: What about if I take him to court anyway, cos I still reckon Nutsville owes me under the contract terms?

S: (Sigh). Ok. Where’s your “genuine pre estimate of loss”.

PWC: There you go with all that legal mumbo jumbo again. What are you on about now?

S: Have you read the BPA Ltd’s code of practice?

PWC: Course I have! I had to sign up to it before I could get access to the DVLA database, which is where I get all those lovely vehicle keeper’s details which allow me to send my scary debt collection agency and solicitor’s letters with BIG, RED SCARY WRITING on.

S: Then because you have read it, you will know that at rule 19.5 of the code of practice it says “If the parking charge that the driver is being asked to pay is for a breach of contract or act of trespass, this charge must be based on the genuine pre-estimate of loss that you suffer.” Obviously the BPA Ltd are aware of this issue or they wouldn’t have put it in their code of practice and then make you sign up to it. So I repeat, where’s your “genuine pre estimate of loss”?

PWC: I dunno. Maybe we ain’t got one.

S: Oh dear! It would seem that YOU are the one in trouble then. I have just proved to you that you cannot prove that you have suffered a loss, and yet the BPA Ltd have made you sign up to the BPA Ltd code that says you have genuinely estimated a figure of £80 as your provable loss. If the DVLA find out about this you will be struck off immediately.

PWC: What! Do the BPA Ltd know about this!?!?

S: Well obviously they do, otherwise they wouldn’t have covered their backs by putting it in their code of conduct. Wait a minute though! There is something the BPA Ltd and you could do to remedy this.

PWC: Please, please tell me what it is. I can’t lose my livelihood.

S: Well I can’t say that it will save your livelihood, but it might help save other BPA Ltd members from making the same mistakes as you.

PWC: Well I do have a load of mates in the industry, so if there is anything I can do to help them, I’m sure it would be much appreciated.

S: In that case, this is what you do. You fess up to the BPA Ltd that you have made a mistake, and tell them that you are trying to rectify it. I hear the No To Mob have a few good ideas about this and that they are already advising some other BPA Ltd members about setting up an alternative to the BPA Ltd. You will have to take your medicine, and hope that because you have owned up, the DVLA will allow you to access the database again once you have cleaned up your act.

PWC: Ok. What then?

S: Then you lobby the BPA Ltd and ask them to invoke their powers to audit each of its members in order to establish whether they have a proper and genuine pre estimate of loss. They could do this by invoking rule 19.8 of their code of practice which states: “If you are asked, you must be able to justify the level of parking charges to the AOS Board, a member of our compliance team or to their specified agent.”

PWC: But what if the auditors find out that none of the BPA Ltd’s members can prove a loss? What happens then?

S: Well then the BPA Ltd would have to report this to the DVLA, and they would have no choice but to suspend any offenders from using their database.

PWC: But why didn’t the BPA Ltd warn me about this? What am I paying them for?

S: Those are questions for the BPA Ltd Mr Weasel, not for me.

PWC: Well how about I let Nutsville off, but continue to send out tickets to others in the full knowledge that some of them won’t be as smart as Nutsville and will pay up under threat of issuing court proceedings, even though I know that I can’t ever bring a successful prosecution in a court of law?

S: My professional opinion is that if someone were to find out, then such behaviour could very possibly be classified as committing a fraud and that you and others could end up going to prison, or at the very least paying a hefty fine.

PWC: Yeh, but you can’t tell them what advice you’ve given to me because of solicitor client privilege, so I can have plausible deniability for a while at least.

S: That’s true, but you have forgotten one thing. What if the BPA Ltd do a proper audit of your books and discover that you don’t have a genuine pre estimate of loss?

PWC: Are you ‘avin a laugh pal!?!? Why would they ever do that when they know that what they might find could result in the vast majority of its members being suspended, possibly permanently, both from the BPA Ltd and from using the DVLA database. Nah mate. Just send me your bill and keep your mouth shut. We just have to hope that Nutsville doesn’t get wind of this, or we’re all up a shit creek without a paddle.

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If you have a story you think we would be interested in please email:

news@nutsville.com

Three cheers for Nutsville and their fab work.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Greeacre Writers - guest blog - Literary festival

Less than 2 weeks to the Fabulous Festival

Greenacre Writers are delighted to confirm the authors who will be appearing at the Greenacre Writers Literary Festival:

Fri 17th May 4.30-6.30pm Friern Barnet Community Library, Friern Barnet Road, N11 3DS.

Miriam Halahmy will be running a creative writing workshop: