From Nick Poingdestre.
YOUR story concerning campsite proprietor David Bridges shows how useless our legal system is for protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens and how it can be abused by cheats and fraudsters.

It is interesting in one respect, however, as it highlights one avenue I didn’t think of using in a recent case of debt collection involving one of our well-known British banks.

A friend of mine went into his branch to close his account in June last year and promptly withdrew all his money. Due to the bank’s maladministration, however, they didn’t actually close his account and subsequently paid several standing orders.

As a consequence, the account went overdrawn and the bank wrote to him demanding he put the account back into credit.

They wrote to him every week from 8 July to 30 October, as well as on 13 November and 10 December, by which time the matter had gone to the JFSC because the bank had levied overdraft fees of £330 and were insisting that they be paid.

Had I known about the defence of harassment, I would have advised him to go straight to the police, as the JFSC can only adjudicate on the complaints process and it seems that the police can arrest the directors of a British bank if they persist in demanding money from their customers.

Perhaps any readers who are being bothered by troublesome firms asking for payment of any goods and services they may have had would therefore consider going to the police as a cheaper alternative to legal representation.