Life On The Line: How to Lose a Million and So Much More

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This is the harrowing and moving story on how one man's life fell apart spectacularly because of his addiction to gambling and how, after hitting rock bottom, he finally managed to conquer his demons. Delve into our features and read about controversial moments, Match Fixing, Defunct Lanarkshire Cups, European Matches and Tours the club have embarked upon.

Two decisions of the European Court which are of relevance to this issue were discussed in submissions to me. That was an action in which a firm of solicitors sued for professional fees arising out of work undertaken by them in representing the defender's interests in an action brought by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in which he sought the disqualification of the defender from acting as a company director. The sheriff refused to grant decree holding, on the basis of Rule 3(4) above quoted that the court had no jurisdiction. The writ was placed before a sheriff who refused to grant a warrant for service holding that the defender was a consumer, that the contract was one for services, and that consequently jurisdiction was excluded in terms of Rule 3. In this action the pursuers seek to enforce certain rights which they allege arise under a Management Agreement entered into between them and the defender on 31 July 2000.

They are matters concerned with the activities that constitute the trade professed by the defenders. That decision was the subject of an appeal to the Sheriff Principal the argument being that the defenders had been acting in the course of their trade and that Rule 3 did not apply. The strongest aspect of the defender's argument in my view is that, for a contract to be regarded as entered into for a trade or business purpose it must be an organisational or managerial act within the broad scope of that trade or business.

It has been observed that those developing the legislation have sought to establish that "only final consumers acting in a private capacity should be given special protection": (Report by Professor Schlosser on the Accession Convention Section 4 - Official Journal of the European Communities 1979 see 59/71). I reject any suggestion, as did the sheriff, that the terms "trade" and "profession" each have a narrow or specialised meaning. There is no dispute that this was a proper consequence of the conclusion that the case does not concern a "consumer contract". Whilst the defender is an individual he is effectively in the position of a sole trader, and the engagement of an agent to "exploit the identity and profile" of a sole trader can hardly be equivocated to that of an individual obtaining employment. It should be interpreted in the light of its purpose which is to protect the weaker party and in accordance with other International instruments with the same purpose such as the Judgments Convention.He made the telling point that if, as appeared from the earlier decisions of the Sheriff Principal, the issue was solely one of whether the contract was a type which the defenders would ordinarily enter into in the course of their trade of business that would leave the way open for the largest of corporations to argue that they should be treated as "consumers" whenever they entered into a contract which did not fall directly within their business purposes. He was eventually released when the club went into administration at the end of the 2001/02 season with many employees and players losing their jobs. A forward, Twaddle began his career with junior club Dunbar United where he made 45 appearances and scored 23 goals. I thought the author was very honest and brave telling us what he did to get money to gamble, especially to his family as it clearly continues to make him feel very ashamed about what he did.

They might require to contract, for instance, with specialists for mechanical or electrical repairs to premises or to equipment. It is also worthy of note that in a report on the 1980 Convention on the law applicable to contract obligations (Official Journal C282/23) Professors Giuliano and Lagarde made the following comments: "The definition of consumer contracts corresponds to that contained in Article 13 of the Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments. In the context of these observations the agent for the defender stressed that his client was the ultimate consumer; the contract was for the purpose of satisfying his own needs - he was not "trading on". He said that the defender might not have retained the services of the pursuers for "private consumption" but rather in furtherance of his future business interests. Consumer" is defined as "any natural person who, in contracts covered by the Regulations, is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business or profession".These observations are factually correct, but the definition of "consumer" in the relevant directive is in terms which are so close to the definition in Rule 3 of Schedule 8 of the 1982 Act as to make no material difference. If it is, it is not disputed that this court has no jurisdiction in the present case as the defender does not have his domicile in Glasgow. If such a person acts partly within, partly outside his trade or profession the situation only falls within the scope of Article 5 if he acts primarily outside his trade or profession". I bought this book and I am spreading it about my friends, because I have loads of people who I love, who waste their money on bookmakers. I had never heard of this gentleman before I saw this book, I came across it and decided to read it because I am having issues at the moment with online gambling that I am trying to address and I felt reading it might help and give me some insight into how to sort out the problem.