LEGAL ACTION AGAINST NAUNTON PUGH t/a
CAPE FLYING SERVICES (EUROPE)
• The legal case BB 301870, AW Young (v) Naunton Pugh t/a Cape Flying Services (Europe) in a full hearing was part heard at Cambridge County Court on 25th March 2004 and thereafter at Peterborough County Court on 25 June 2004 to its conclusion.
• On the 25th June 2004, District Judge Wharton issued Judgment against Naunton Pugh t/a Cape Flying Services (Europe) for a breach of contract and awarded damages (£376) and costs (£461), total £837. After hearing all the evidence submitted by both parties the court had found that the contract being solely his responsibility and as a result of a breach resulted in damages and costs being awarded to me. Damages suffered as a result of the course attended at Cape Flying Services in George, South Africa and the failure being fully purchased through Cape Flying Services (Europe), costs being awarded in pursuit of the case.
• No grounds for appeal where entered and although Naunton Pugh sought permission to appeal this was refused and therefore not granted. He was given 14 days to pay the awarded decision, needless to say and from past experiences, this date deadline expired on Friday 9th July 2004, he has not paid the money which may now result in him being pursued by other legal means to recover the full debt that could include the seriously considered possibility of declaring him bankrupt, such as my determination.
• The awarded figure is more than he and Gerald Todd at Cape Flying Services in South Africa says is owed but less than my claim, however, principally a good, fair and just result considering all the facts presented.
I previously posted a thread called Cape Flying Services (South Africa) on 3rd May 2003 under African Aviation to essentially highlight my difficulties with “booking” and attending a PPL course at Cape Flying Services, George, in April 2003, “booking the course” through an “agent” Naunton Pugh t/a Cape Flying Services (Europe). The post had created an enormous amount of varying and interesting perspectives relating to all factors of aviation, the agent, school and indeed myself etc. Despite receiving over 100 replies with 5000 hits, sadly, on 3rd June 2004 the thread was closed.
However, I promised that I would report back to the forum when the legal case and due process was concluded. As this is now the case I would therefore greatly appreciate and request that this thread be allowed to continue further from this posting to allow fellow ppruner’s the opportunity to express their thoughts in a constructive way as the hope would be to help to prevent this sort of difficulty happening in the future and it is not some kind of personal vendetta, because, when you think hard about it, it will have an effect on African Aviation, irrespective, of which side of the fence you are sitting.
The legal action case was never ever fought or considered on the ability or arguably the lack of ability to complete the PPL course in the advertised 21 days, this point was always going to be obviously too difficult to prove for a lot of reasons, at the time, this was furthest from my mind; the trip halfway across the world to attend the course, diarise every single failed moment and gather documentary evidence whilst at the school for the purposes of obtaining a full refund upon return to the UK was simply not on the cards.
An example, say, in good faith, you paid upfront for 600 hours flying and only received 400, irrespective of the total hours, and say, only achieving solo status at 374 hours, it does not matter, because you would and expect a refund of the difference, not expect to have to go to drag this point alone through the courts and have yourself branded having a criminal record, unless speeding or a parking ticket is now regarded a being criminal, as labelled by the other “party”, that is Mr Todd during this process. Quite simply, the defence stated, that I refused to fly on the last two days because I went to Cape Town when quite obviously, I flew all the allocated time within the period that I attended the course, as seen in my flight log book. In fact, this successful point alone was my main point in my first letter of complaint to both of them back in 22nd April 2003, it is clear, a refund was not going to be paid under any circumstances for whatever reason only best known to Naunton Pugh and Gerald Todd.
Is it not a little bit silly or even suspicious that in the end, the simplest and easily resolved problems come back to bite your backside or land on someone else’s lap! like, refund for untaken flying time, overcharge on invoice and accommodation difficulties etc, notwithstanding, at least 8 attempts to resolve the whole thing have gone brutally unnoticed, settled or even counter proposed, not just even to avoid mounting costs on both parties. In fact, certain documents supplied by Naunton Pugh in his defence clearly and without question indicate a concerted effort by collusion with Gerald Todd to “keep this matter alive by dragging the process out” Surely, this whole affair is beyond belief and may raise some serious questions, certainly surrounding the business relationship between Cape Flying Services in South Africa and Naunton Pugh t/a Cape Flying Services (Europe) but, most importantly, no apologies, just character assassination, collusion and fabrication between Naunton Pugh and Gerald Todd, there is documentary evidence in support this statement through some extraordinary evidence of conversations between them. But let’s face it, they did have over a year to try and think up something plausible. It was expected that I was not going to complain, because nobody will or does complain about or to Naunton Pugh or Gerald Todd, even when they both agreed (as is documented) that monies are owed, that is, until they met me!
Thought of the day: When considering any of their services, just think, what will happen if any problem develops, however, small and insignificant, who is going to resolve it for you? ...YOU DECIDE!
Just don’t call Mr Pugh or Mr Todd you might as well call in the Ghostbusters!
Regards and Happy Flying,
Sandy Young
