The way it works is this, an energy company or internet provider, for example, will send you a bill containing a questionable charge. So you go to their website and after much searching find an email form which ends you up in India and you are then met with typical incomprehension. It is often not possible to reply directly to that email response. Next you try phoning and again end up in India with a similar lack of comprehension. Only course left is to write a letter and wait, and wait, and wait for a reply which might never come. With ISPs this whole process can be triggered by a simple complaint to their abuse department, leading to a withdrawal of your broadband service and ultimately a hefty charge for breaking your contract.

Then you get an automated reminder which carries a threat of bailiffs and legal action but there is seems to be no way to contest this. So, either you pay up or wait in anxiety for the bailiffs to arrive and ransack your home.

In similar circumstance and at considerable financial risk to herself, Lisa Ferguson took British Gas to the High Court and won. The findings can be studied here:

 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/46.html

″To summarise, starting on 21st August 2006 and continuing until at least late January the next year, British Gas sent Ms Ferguson bill after bill and threatening letter after threatening letter. Nothing she could do would stop it. The threats were threefold in nature: those to cut off her gas supply, to start legal proceedings and, a matter most important to her as a businesswoman, to report her to credit rating agencies. She wrote letter after letter pointing out that she had no account with British Gas, she made phone calls (with all the difficulty of getting through), but to no avail. Mainly her letters received no response. Sometimes she received apologies and assurances that the matter would be dealt with. But then the bills and threats continued. She complained to Energy Watch. She wrote to the Chairman of British Gas twice with no response. She says she wasted many hours, and, more importantly, was brought to a state of considerable anxiety, not knowing whether the gas man would come at any time to cut her off, whether she would have legal proceedings served upon her or whether she would be or had already been reported to a credit rating agency. Even when her solicitor wrote on her behalf about an unjustified bill of 18th January, no response was received.″

Harassing customers is actually a criminal offence and its victims may also claim damages in the civil courts for anxiety and financial loss. But why should these victims of automated corporate harassment have to go to court at all? If its a criminal offence why don't the police choose to handle it?

Lord Justice Sedley states, ″In this situation it ought not to be left to hardy individuals to put their savings and homes at risk by suing. The primary responsibility should rest upon local public authorities which possess the means and the statutory powers to bring alleged harassers, however impersonal and powerful, before the local justices.″