A friend (middle-aged female) hired a car from Enterprise Car Rental, Nottingham, and returned it on Monday last (11th Feb) at 1230 hrs. The car was examined by an Enterprise employee ('Employee A') who declared himself satisfied with its condition and my friend was permitted to leave the premises.

At 0930 the following morning she received a phone call from a different male employee of Enterprise ('Employee B'). This person adopted an belligerent tone from the onset. He stated that he had taken the car to be cleaned and discovered damage to one of the alloy wheels. He said that the car had been under CCTV surveillance from the time of its return to Enterprise's premises and that therefore the damage could only have been incurred during the term of its hire to my friend.

He said that the car required a new wheel and that my friend would have to pay £450 for this. He spoke very quickly and with a heavy accent and was at times barely comprehensible, to the extent that my friend continually had to ask him to slow down and repeat what he had said.

My friend phoned me in tears and is terrified of being taken to court as she cannot afford to pay the £450. I would have thought that her contract with Enterprise ended when Employee A inspected the car and expressed himself satisfied with its condition and that Employee B, in phoning her 21 hours later and, in effect, attempting to reinstate the contract retrospectively, was acting unlawfully.

I would consider also that in pursuing this malicious claim, Enterprise are leaving themselves open to a counter-claim under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, along with an invoice from my friend for expenses in respect of stress and time wasted in refuting the claim, non-compliance of which to be dealt with by an application to the Small Claims Track of the County Court. I have advised her to go the local CAB but would appreciate your opinion?