There is a little irony that I’m telling this story now, as it’s exactly a year since I had the misfortune to become involved with Mr. James McCarthy. During the past year quite a lot happened, which as I feel should be made public so I’ll summarise below.
Replacing the engine
I needed a replacement engine for the T11 I bought and through the forum was put in contact with James McCarthy, who had an engine for sale. So we agreed a purchase price for the engine and I asked that it be sent to Carl Hayward [Hayward Rotary] who I instructed to carry out the fitting.
The engine arrived Carl in 02.10 and was fitted. Carl rang me to say the engine was no good and I should talk to James. James was very shocked to hear about the engine and said that if I delivered the car to him he would look at it and either give me a refund or repair it. I thought that was a very professional response so I delivered to car to him. Before delivering the car I did have the forethought to send him an email stating what his proposition was, clearly stating that if he chose to rebuild it then it would be at no cost to me.
Having looked at the engine he said he would give me back a working car in a week. I thought this a bit ambitious but he’s a rotary guy not me. Well, one week became two, three etc.
The Issue
Eventually after nine weeks I get the call that the car is fixed, only needing an MOT. I asked him to sort this for me as I didn’t want the expense of trailering it back some 130 miles each way. The MOT took another week – and it failed on emissions so I decided to hire a transporter and collect the car. I hired the transporter, filled it up with fuel, insured it and set off to collect the car.
100 miles into the trip he rang me to say the car was difficult to start and may need plugs, I was surprised he didn’t have any, anyway he rang me five minuets later to say he had started the car and the engine had blown up. I drove the last 30 miles and we discussed what to do. I offered to put the broken car on the transporter and take it away but he was most insistent that I leave it so he could fix it, so I left it for him to examine again.
He rang me a couple of days later to say the engine, which he had rebuilt, has suffered “catastrophic oil starvation”.
At this point, some ten weeks with him having my car I decided to collect the car as it was.
On collecting the car I pointed out that both rear quarters had damage – this comment just received a shrug of the shoulders.
So I’m ten weeks on still needing an engine but a considerable amount of money out of pocket, around £1,600.00 [details on request]
Mediation and Court Case
I decided to talk to Trading Standards, they thought I had a good case for Consequential Loss so I wrote to Mr. McCarthy explaining my costs and asking for him to reimburse me. This letter got no response.
I then issued a Small Claim against him for the above amount. The first surprise was that I received a Counter Claim from Mr. McCarthy for just over £1.400.00 This being the cost of parts and labour for him NOT to fix my car, also despite the original email, very strange.
So there was a failed attempt with a Court Mediator and the case goes to Court. The next thing Mr. McCarthy tried to do was to have the case moved from B’ham to somewhere near him – rejected. So we go to Court and not surprisingly to me my claim was upheld [although a slightly reduced amount] and Mr. McCarthy’s counter claim was thrown out.
So I’m awarded £1,466.59 to be paid within two weeks – didn’t happen.
The Court Award
A month after he was due to pay Mr. McCarthy writes to the Court claiming he has no money to pay this order and asks that he be allowed to pay in instalments of……………………………………………………………………
£25.00 a month – you work it out that’s the best part of five years.
I wrote to the court rejecting this offer based on how he seems to find enough money to modify his cars etc.
I have now received a letter from the Court accepting this paltry offer of £25.00 a month taking 59 months to settle, if he pays.
So there it is, a very long post.
James McCarthy - Full Flow Customs Ltd
Having carried out some research during the year I understand
Mr James McCarthy is about 27 years old and on his fourth company:
T/A J.M Garage
J.M.Garage LTD
T/A Full Flow Customs
Full Flow Customs Ltd.
When I dealt with him he was T/A Full Flow customs.
Conclusion
I don’t need to detail what I think of Mr. James McCarthy – or any of his companies.
You may want to deal with a guy who needs nearly five years to pay a £1.500.00 debt, can’t be doing very well can he?
This also shows that even doing everything right through the courts doesn’t mean you get your money back straight away.
All the above is what was presented at Court and Mr McCarthy is more than welcome to reply and perhaps explain his financial predicament or correct any of the above information if incorrect.
I will close this very long post with a huge thanks to Hayward Rotary
[Carl and his team], without their help and expertise in sorting the car out I doubt it would be on the road now.
As many will know MRC guidelines dictate that this thread will be closed and James McCarthy is now invited to respond if he wishes to,
Hi all,
I feel that before i get into the issue there are a couple of non related issues that need to be mentioned first, one raised by John. This thread was put up by John on the 6th of Jan and no attempt to notify me was made at all. Not by the either the thread poster or any of the admin team. Until John posted on my 20B thread I was unaware it even existed and had he not i speculate if i would have ever been told it was there.
The second issue is with my apparent four companies by the age of 27. This is simply not the case. JM Garage was in fact a vendor on MRC for a period of time. However unknown to me at the time there is another company called JM Garages that’s a Porsche specialist in Dorset. The active decision to change the company name to Full Flow Customs was made to avoid confusion after a few calls from rather confused customers going both ways.
Now Johns Vert FC. First off yes the car took too long to get back to him. However fitting a car in that you’re not expecting to work on can be difficult at the best of time and sometimes they have to wait so you can get on with paying jobs that cover the bills of the shop. Unfortunately this was the case with John’s car and thus the time line and for that I’m more than happy to apologize.
The initial engine in question was out of my daily Turbo II daily driver. John was put in touch with me by another MRC member that was aware I was swapping the engine in my TII for one i had been building for some time. John called we agree the price for the block. The engine was then removed from the car at that point and shipped to Carl\'s for installation. I also sent UIM, LIM, injectors and loom as I had no use for them. I received a call from both Carl and John to inform me that the motor was running rough. I was very much shocked by this fact as the motor came from my own running FC. With this I said to John get car to me we\'ll have a look and either way I would refund him the cost of the engine or fix it if the parts costs did not exceed that of the agreed engine price so it would cost him no extra money on top of what he had paid. The engine was examined repaired and reinstalled at my cost. As John then mentions about the MOT inspection, I was advised that emissions would be an issue so John decided to come and collect the car.
The engine failed whilst John was on route to me. As John was closer than further away he came passed to chat about the car. I then said I would rather re examine the engine at no cost to him. This was done as a good faith gesture as the engine had let go. Before John left i was told that he bought the car as a non runner in the November before. I feel I should have been told this before. So I checked engine and electrics and a few other bits to see if there was a cause for the engine failure. Oil starvation appeared to be the case.
At this point John asked me for a full refund for the cost of the engine at the price sold to him and could I have it for him when he collects the car. I agreed to this and did refund John the full cost of the original agreed price. I went in to meet him on the Sunday, I believe the same day as the Brooklands meet, John did mention the rear quarter plastic trims had been damaged but when he arrived was unaware until he pointed it out. We loaded the trailer I Refunded john his money and he left.
On the 27th April \'10 I received a letter form John asking for his losses and that was shortly followed on the 13th May \'10 by a court letter. So after my best efforts to help John, fixing the engine at my cost and then refunding him the engine when it failed again it went to court and John got a reduced cost awarded. I was and am not in a position to pay these costs out write. I have no reason at all to explain or discus my financial position on an open forum. With regards to Johns final words in his post "if he pays" why on earth would I not.
As far as I see, I did all I could to help John before he decided to take the car back. Repaired the first engine out of my car at no cost, re-examined the reason for the 2nd failure at no cost and then refunded full cost of the engine to him despite the time and money it cost me over the period the car was with me.
All of the above is detailed in our court documents.