A Limited Ploy? – ACS:LAW and Media C.A.T close together

To those who have endured the letters of ACS:LAW from May 2009, the news is simply stunning, albeit there is an air of cynicism to be had.  It is true that ACS:LAW and their symbiotic monster Media C.A.T have ceased trading.  It was announced in yet another leaked email, an email sent by Andrew Crossley confirming that not only had he  closed his business but to prove the point of connection with his long time friend Lee Bowden, he also announced that Bowden’s company Media C.A.T was also closing up shop.

 This story has been well covered by TorrentFreak, but I wish to dwell not on this news so much as what the future may hold.

 The SRA as has been reported has already referred Crossley to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for a THIRD time.  The decision to fold BOTH companies just days before a Judge was due to hold a hearing regarding costs and damages, must be to all but the most positive thinking airhead to be in the least suspicious.  Can a limited company be held for costs and damages IF it no longer exists?

What is disturbing, it that on the date of the second hearing, Bowden not being present, it has transpired that he was busy setting up another Limited Company…now I know this sounds to unbelievable but it is sadly true.  The Company “100 Mile Media” was registered as a domain, as can be seen here.

Lee Bowden is the Managing Director of “Piri Ltd” and the “The Textworks”, as well as Media C.A.T, there will be others I am sure.  What is so galling is that it seems that Bowden will be able to walk away from all this “Scot free”, his company being a Limited Company will protect him against costs that would have been surely awarded against him.  Bowden was described by ACS:LAW as a “Copyright Expert”, well, in addition to that he has also been a “Public Relations Agency” and also “Building Development”.

We will have to see what happens at 14:00 on Tuesday 8^th February at the Patents Court.  What will become of the data that ACS:LAW still hold on people? Will it be destroyed or sold off to someone else? 

Andrew Crossley acquired a Limited Company called “Larper Ltd” back in April 2010.  What is worrying is that come the hearing on the 8^th February, unless Judge Birss finishes the practice of “Speculative Invoicing” it can be picked back up by changing limited companies, folding and starting anew, I realise of course there are more parameters involved, ie the NPO granting, which I doubt will be allowed to be given out as freely as in the past.

Also of note is the number of EX ACS:LAW employees busy scratching the name of the Company from their CVs (Leyla Mehru, hello).  I believe we need to keep an eye out for the main players activities in all this, Adam Glen, Jonathan Miller, Terence Tsang seem to be the main ones in addition to Crossley and Bowden.  We have already seen that Miller plus one other “Ex ACS:LAW employee” were behind GCB Ltd. 

These are the details of the companies setup by Bowden and Crossley (I have included Media C.A.T as it seems interesting that it shares the same “Virtual space” as his new Company.

100milemedia.co.uk

Name & Registered Office:
100 MILE MEDIA LIMITED
2 ND FLOOR
43 WHITFIELD STREET
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
W1T 4HD

Date of Incorporation: 24/01/2011

Company No. 07503354
http://www.whois-search.com/whois/100milemedia.co.uk

 Name & Registered Office:
MEDIA C.A.T. LTD
c/o GATEWAY PARTNERS
43 WHITFIELD STREET
LONDON
ENGLAND
W1T 4HD

Date of Incorporation: 29/04/2002

Company No. 04426555

http://web.archive.org/web/20060402205823/http://media-cat.co.uk/

Name & Registered Office:
LARPER LIMITED
c/o ACS LAW SOLICITORS
20 HANOVER SQUARE
LONDON
W1S 1JY

Date of Incorporation: 06/04/2010

Company No. 07213422

ACS:BORE-2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 130,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 6 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 57 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 147 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 24mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was May 27th with 6,649 views. The most popular post that day was ACS LAW send out Phishing Questionnaires UPDATED.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were torrentfreak.com, slyck.com, consumeractiongroup.co.uk, ispreview.co.uk, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for gallant macmillan, andrew crossley, wordpress blog acs law, acs bore, and acs law wordpress.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

ACS LAW send out Phishing Questionnaires UPDATED February 2010
14 comments

2

Gallant MacMillan “Latest entrants into the hall of Infamy” demand Money for “Ministry of Sound” July 2010
61 comments

3

“Tilly Bailey and Irvine” Stop sending “Speculative Invoices” to save their Reputation April 2010
10 comments

4

Davenport Lyons, ACS:LAW, Tilly Bailey and Irvine, SHAME ON YOU March 2010
1 comment

5

Received a letter from ACS LAW? Dont panic January 2010
3 comments

I would like to thanks Slyck, Enigmax of Torrentfreak and ACS:FLAW, or just Flaw who is a legend!  Thanks guys and gals onto 2011……

Musically – Speculate to accumulate: Mass lawsuits and p2p

This is an article from MusicAlly, an industry site.

This article includes contributions from the excellent Beingthreatened.com and your favourite “amateurish shouty, unprofessional” Blog  ACS:BORE

Please download the musically Article

View this document on Scribd

Musically is a subscription based website aimed at the industry, but they have kindly released this part of the article.

Thanks also to Enigmax at Torrentfreak

EDIT: Link is now fixed

ACS:LAW still sending out letters AFTER the Leak.

 

Andrew Crossley - ACS LAW

 

 

Lee Bowden - Media C.A.T

 

After one of the BIGGEST data leaks in UK history adding misery to thousands of people many of them innocent, ACS:LAW seem to be deaf to the cries of reason.

Unbelievably they have continued to send out letters of claim to people they suspect of illegal file-sharing.  What it means to be suspected by ACS:LAW is unknown as their monitoring apparatus is NOT available for public scrutiny and indeed in some of the leaked emails even ACS:LAW staff were not convinced by the “Expert Witnesses” that are supposed to have see the software used to identify IP addresses.

Below is part of a scan of a letter sent THIS month (October) on behalf of Media Cat, whose Boss Lee Bowden goes back a long way with ACS:LAW Boss Andrew Crossley.

Lee Bowden “represents” RELISH Adult films that is owned by Jasper Faversham, AKA Jasper Orlando Slingsby Duncombe AKA 7th Baron Feversham.  Faversham was disinherited by his Father (Got the title but nothing else), but of course this has NOTHING to do with money does it?

Media Cat are seen as small time chancers in the emails leaked, indeed Lee Bowden seems quite upset that he is not getting his cut,  “Everyone is getting eir(sic) bit and I am owed £17k ffs.” Faversham himself does not come across much better “Much looking forward to sending letters to these f$$$ers,”, and that from a LORD no less!

But I digress,  the letter from ACS:LAW is an outrage in to many ways.  We really need to do something now, the Media has been lukewarm, Sky News has not even reported the Data Leak (Probably due to it affecting 5000 of their subscribers)

ANYONE who has received a letter from ACS:LAW AFTER the 24th September, I repeat ANYONE WHO HAS RECEIVED A LETTER FROM ACS:LAW AFTER 24TH SEPTEMBER, please email tom@slyck.com

Slyck were the people who BROKE THE news of the ACS:LAW Email leak

This Blog is NOT affiliated with Slyck although we admire them greatly and the work they have done.

ACS:LAW “Davenport Lyons were rubbish and arrogant”

In a startling email between Andrew Crossley and Andrew Hopper QC (concerning collaborating with Tilly Bailey and Irvine), Andrew Crossley dismisses Davenport Lyons efforts (Which he based his whole practice on) as “.. a little bit rubbish at doing this work” and adds “….to arrogant”

What is really interesting is that it appears that Andrew Hopper QC is actually working with ACS:LAW and also Tilly Bailey and Irvine by advising them how best to deal with the SRA.

In the email Crossley continues regarding Davenport Lyons arrogance by stating “…not like me, TBI or the latest brigand Gallant Macmillan”

The link with Gallant Macmillan is unfortunate timing  for them in light of the email leak.  Gallant Macmillan are back in Court on 4th October to contest the release of an NPO which will give them permission to get lots of further names from the IP addresses they already hold (for the Ministry of Sound).

The original hearing was on the 20th September 2010 but was adjourned as Chief Master Winegarten the presiding Judge had reservations about granting the NPO.  This was covered in an article by Torrentfreak

It will be a VERY interesting October 4th when Simon Gallant walks through the door and has to put his case before the Judge, in light of ACS:LAW releasing their emails to the public

To write to Chief Master Winegarten  CHANCERY DIVISION, ROOM TM 7.08, THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE, STRAND, LONDON, WC2A 2LL

For continuing coverage of the email leak please see TorrentFreak and Slyck

The full email is here

EXCLUSIVE: ACS:LAWs Andrew Crossley and the FIRST Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

The Notorious ACS:LAW Solicitor Andrew Crossley who has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is no stranger AT all. Many Blogs and news articles have stated that this will be Crossleys Second time before the Tribunal however here at ACSBORE we can confirm it will in fact be his THIRD time in front of the Tribunal.

Although the report of the maverick lawyers Second appearance has been available on the SRA Website, the FIRST appearance has been harder to track down, but WE HAVE GOT IT and it makes for some interesting reading.

I have posted the Document for your own perusal and I will not go into to much detail. One of the most striking things is the way that Andrew Crossely uses his health and an unfortunate string of events outside his control as an excuse for not filing his financial report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority that is required to show that a clients finances are not being mishandled.

In the Finding that found Crossley of committing “Conduct unbefitting a Solicitor” which Crossley did NOT accept, is a section where he claims to have been struck Blind with a Stroke at 36, and also troubles with a rogue accountant who “Blackmailed” Crossley by demanding money before the release of paperwork.

The Blackmail charge is a charge that has been used AGAINST Crossley by the House of Lords and many letter recipients who have received his “Pay up or else face Court” Letters, letters that Crossley laughingly calls “an invitation to enter into a compromise”. Maybe his ex Accountants should have used that excuse!

After employing a new accountant Crossley claims that that one also did him wrong bemoaning the “High Cost” of £500 for “Writing one letter and talking to the respondent(Crossley) Twice”

Those innocent people who have received letters of claim for a similar amount might think Crossley got a better deal for his £500 than what they got!

One further point is that Crossley has no problems using his illness as mitigating factors where he has never to my knowledge shown that to any of the people he has sent his “Speculative Invoices” to.

With news breaking the Logistep one of Crossley favoured data managers being BANNED from their country of origin  and a group of Solicitors persuing ACS:LAW through the Courts for harrassment, this whole nasty mess might be starting to fade. Let us hope this is true

Andrew Crossleys FIRST appearance (31_10_2002) at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (Please Click for the PDF of the findings)

Andrew Crossleys SECOND appearance (02_02_2006) before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (Please Click here for a PDF of the findings)

How to complain to the SRA about ACS:LAW and Gallant Macmillan

Many people have received a letter from either ACS:LAW or Gallant Macmillan.  These letters seem to act like a dragnet in that they may well identify the occasional person who is accused of file sharing who actually did it, but far to many times the dragnet has included many who are wholly innocent of what they have been accused of.

The wording of the letters of ACS:LAW and Gallant Macmillan are VERY similar and they have also used the same “Monitoring” Software.

With the recent news that ACS:LAWs Andrew Crossley is following Davenport Lyons in being referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, a lot of people receiving a letter from Gallant Macmillan have started coming forward, claiming innocence.

With all this in mind ACS BORE has obtained a Proforma from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for people to fill out details of the letters they have received, as the SRA are looking to end this practice.  This practise after all is very corrosive to the trust that people have in the Legal profession.

Here is a link to help you complete the form that the SRA require.  It is a simple form that will not take long at all to fill out.  PLEASE DO IT

Contact Centre Proforma – External Use Doc File

Contact Centre
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Tel: 0870 606 2555
Fax: 0207 320 5964
Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk

Here is a link to the previous appearances by Andrew Crossley at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

crossley,andrew_20100826085003

This letter sending dragnet of “Speculative Invoicing will ONLY stop when the SRA has a loud and booming voice saying “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, THIS IS NOT JUSTICE” and one of the best ways we can provide that voice is by filling out the form and sending it to them.  If YOU do nothing then dont expect ANYTHING to change