Companies House today 12/06/18 confirmed that Claire Louise Sandbrook, High Court Enforcement Officer and owner of Shergroup Ltd is officially a resident in the USA, as per her completed form for Persons with Significant Control dated last year on 02/06/2017 (but filed today). 12 Jun 2018 - Change of details for Mrs Claire Louise Sandbrook as a person with significant control on 2 June 2017 - New Country /State usually resident: United States https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04771589/filing-history Given that aside from Shergroup, Sandbrook sells her authority as an HCEO to the likes of DCBL and many other HCEO "franchises" does she really have control of the writs issued in her name? With the recent DCBL case it would appear not - DCBL Ordered to pay £20k Maybe it's finally time for a review into the HCEO system...

Hello, tried everywhere including sheriffs office itself.... it is a long story but i will start from getting CCJ against me, which i was paying £15 a month (in total until HCEA came £360 of £1490 original debt) just to clarify i admit the debt and i have intention to pay it in full. I had arrange £15 a month but has few hard months and debt been transferred to HCEA, in the mean time we have moved shops (this is business debt) when EA came he couldn't do anything as address on writ was wrong EA said all letters has been send to our old address and he need to go back to office and send new letter to us (not sure if i am right but i was expecting Compliance letter), we never received letter (i did even contacted EA to ask about where letter is) instead i had EA visit with Enforcement stage 1 £275 added to my bill then we arranged to pay £100 a month (£1690 at the time) from 1st of july. I was paying £100 a month in December i forgot and in the 14th of December EA came back adding Enforcement stage 2 £490 plus Sale or Disposal Stage £600 all that plus VAT and been asked to pay £500 or he will start to remove goods i did read a bit but cant find anywhere if they can charge me few stages at the same time . If someone please can check this out and see if that is all correct because from original debt they received £1130 (i am aware they got compliance fee and other fees) i since then paid (in 5 months) £1000 but still got £1950 to pay!!! I am not very familiar with debt recovery but it all looks like [problem]. Thank You

The following press article features on SCOOP this morning: http://www.ccrmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14497&Itemid=33 High Court Enforcement Group (HCE Group), the largest independent and privately owned high court enforcement company in England and Wales, is proud to announce the acquisition of The Sheriffs Office, with effect from 31st January 2016. Following the acquisition, both businesses will continue to operate as separate legal entities. The combined experience and expertise in both High Court and specialist areas of enforcement within both companies, will prove a valuable and unique resource for all existing and new clients. The two firms will be building on their combined strengths in a number of areas, including client service delivery, compliance and governance, specialist enforcement services, IT infrastructure and geographical coverage by field-based enforcement agents. As a whole, this will see the Group, including their judicial services firm Excel Civil Enforcement, become the largest High Court enforcement company. Martin Leyshon, Group Director of High Court Enforcement Group and Chairman of the High Court Enforcement Officers Association commented: “The acquisition of The Sheriffs Office is a very exciting move for HCE Group. The businesses naturally complement each other and together will give clients a huge amount of choice in terms of services in the enforcement market. 2016 is going to be an exciting year for us, where we will be building on an already solid platform. It’s a great fit." Commenting on the announcement, David Carter, Chief Executive at The Sheriffs Office, said: “The Sheriffs Office is hugely excited to form part of the largest High Court enforcement company in the UK. The breadth of experience and infrastructure this acquisition brings will allow us to provide our clients with unparalleled levels of service and support right across the enforcement spectrum. 2015 was an excellent year for the Sheriffs Office, where we launched a number of specialist services and entered new markets, all leading to growth in all sectors of our business.”

Hi I need some help please my (friend's) wife and her husband have a debt from an old business associate (long story) - long and short of it they now have a high court writ for just over £24k. I have been to the court twice to get it set aside 1) they are both on income based JSA 2) medical grounds / vulnerability - both of which were rejected as the claimant should be given the opportunity to get the money back by way of the sheriffs so the writ still stands. I spoke to CAB and stepchange and both have agreed that bankruptcy is the way forward (although they have to wait over 8 weeks to try and get the £1050 grant from british gas!) however they still need to deal with the sheriffs for the wife's sake! I sent the following letter to them: To: The Sheriffs Office Date: 26th November 2014 Dear Sirs, Re: ************************************* Account reference: ************* Claim Number: ************* We refer to your letter dated 14/11/2014 informing us that your company have been instructed by *************High Court to enforce a High Court Writ against *************, in respect of Writ Claim Number *************. In your letter you state that you will be visiting/returning to our home to remove our goods unless full payment of £24,125.47 is made by 17/11/2014. The purpose of this letter is to advise your company that we believe that our circumstances fall within the category as contained within the National Standards for Enforcement Agents of “vulnerable situations”. The reason for this is that: • ************* are in receipt of Income Based JSA (see attached proof of claim) • ************* is in long term ill health with High Blood Pressure, Severe Anxiety & Hypertension which escalates when she gets anxious (see attached proof of medical evidence) • *************’s relative passed away on 3rd November and was laid to rest on 12/11/2014 (see attached proof of cremation service) Accordingly, we would like to request that you do not visit our property & would refrain from calling our phone and that you would converse via letter / email as this would cause undue stress and anxiety. Instead, we would like to request that you return this case back to the claimant / high court. We would be grateful if you could confirm safe receipt of this letter, and confirmation that the case returned to the claimant / high court. We have received advice from StepChange Debt Charity to help solve my debt problem. We are in financial difficulties at the moment and not able to meet my normal monthly payments. We will make a monthly payment of whatever we can afford until more money is available. We have enclosed our monthly budget and a list of creditors. After paying our household bills, we can pay you £1. We will pay this each month and tell you when our circumstances change. We will continue working with StepChange Debt Charity to improve our circumstances and find a more permanent solution to repay our debt. In the meantime, please consider reducing or stopping interest or any other charges on our account to help us during our financial difficulties. We have retained a copy of this letter for future reference. Yours Faithfully, ************* By which they have now replied: Dear Sir/Madam, Re: ********** -v- ********** ********** Claim Number: ********** Thank you for your email dated 26th November. We have noted our system accordingly. Please note your token offer to pay £1.00 per month has been rejected. We require you to submit reasonable payment proposals to us. Please note this is a high priority debt and as such we require revised proposals to be submitted within 3 days. We would confirm the balance currently stands at £24,183.76 with daily interest being applied. We await hearing from you in due course. Yours faithfully, The Sheriffs Office This is her Dr's letter that accompanied the original letter: ********* is registered with our practice since 1994 and i am one of the GPs she consults. She suffers from Anxiety and Hypertension Over the past 12 months she has been suffering from severe anxiety and is on three lots of medication to help her anxiety symptoms she also has been having high blood pressure which escalates when she gets anxious Yours sincerely Dr ********* What are the other choices? they cant pay anymore than max £4 per month - they have over£15k of other debt (unsecured various) - the main debt is this one but they also have rent and c/tax debt too which i thought were priority debts - not this one? I'm going to write back saying they can only pay a max of £4 a mth - they have seen our financial statement and believe me they haven't got anything else! - they even asked the CAB if they should just let them in to see but they advised not to!? Any other suggestions please? they are getting desperate now and this is putting more and more stress on his wife which is not good for her health! Thanks in advance - play the devils advocate as much as you like - i can take it ive thought of everything as far as i can tell and I just dont know where to turn!

just after a quick bit of advice. after a long thing which i felt i was not responsible for, after several visits to the small claims court, i was asked to pay £#00 to 'the sheriffs office' 'should it be demanded'. this was now a while ago. i paid the claimant so this was over with and it is not my my credit history as ruled by the judge. the so was supposed to appear in court but they failed to twice. hence if was ruled that should it be 'demanded' i was to pay. i received a few emails from so afterwards asking me what the court order said. i said it wasnt my job to report on court orders and they should contact the claimant or the court and ask them. i was asked again a few times from the so what the court order said. i didnt bother responding. since then i had a copy of the court order sent to me from the courts about three times. what is 'demanded'? i did ask teh judge at the time and judge said if they asked me for the amount. they've not done that yet. . is it they cannot get a copy of the order? is that why the court keeps sending me a copy? what should i do? i already paid the claimant after 3 years of a court battle. claimant is out of this whole thing, just the so...

Hi there I need some advice please. I borrowed £1220.20 from a friend of a friend a couple of years ago. I was originally going to repay this when I got a promised back payment from DWP. Unfortunately the back pay didn’t materialise. I offered to pay but she wouldn’t accept anything but £100 a month which as a pensioner on pension credit I could not afford. In March 2013 she opened a Claim on Line, I completed all the forms and offered to pay £4 a month. The judgement came back for me to pay £1 a month from 1st August. I set up a standing order and payments have been made since. I then received a summons to County Court as she wanted more per month. I couldn’t get to the court as I suffer from COPD & a heart condition phoned the court to explain 3 days before the hearing and was told to email the court with an offer and covering notes. I did this the same day. Then I got a judgement saying that I had to pay £50 a month from 1st Dec, the letter was posted by the court on 3rd Dec. I spoke to the court who told me that the papers weren’t given to the Judge and that he had been told that I made no payments. I couldn’t afford £50 so went to CAB who prepared a Financial statement and completed an N244 and a hearing was set for 18th Feb. In the meantime I received 4 threatening letters from her saying I had short paid her and that she would take further action if I didn’t pay up. I attended that hearing but the judge hardly let me speak, told the woman that she could put a charge on my house (under threat of eviction as I’m in arrears on the mortgage) she declined. He then ordered payment in full and told her to get details of the bailiffs from the office. The following week I came back from a hospital appointment to find a Form 55 Notice of Seizure from The Sheriffs Office (SHCE Ltd) with a Walking Possession Agreement that states “all goods of defendant or property required to satisfy the debt” The date on the High Court Judgement is 12th Feb 6 days before we saw the County Court Judge. I didn’t sign it nor send it back, spoke to CAB who told me that they couldn’t force their way in or break in if I was out. They also said that they weren’t allowed to base a walking possession notice based on a look through a window so not to sign the forms. The following week I got a call from the Sheriff which I found quite disturbing as he said that they would come back and get in and take my things. When I said that they couldn’t force their way in they said they would call the police and have me arrested for obstructing a court officer. He went on to say that he would send a van to collect my property. I hung up at that point. On Saturday I got a letter from the woman telling me to stop my £1 payments and pay the full amount owed to the Sheriff (now £2285.24) or she would take further steps and get the Sheriffs to enter my house even if I wasn’t there. I am now getting really worried and don’t know what to do or what to expect next. I have a support worker who is helping me to deal with the council and eviction threat but he has no idea what to do about this. So any advice would really help. Sorry if this is a bit long winded but if you need any other info just let me know. Thanks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q0jrc

Had a visit from a P Ashworth who is signed as a HCEO although I cannot find them on the register. They posted a form 55 and a walking possesion agreement (which I can return to prevent removal of goods) for a case from September 2007 The court awarded costs to another party who has not pursued until the weekend. No one was in so the forms were posted through the letterbox and ask for immediate payment to settle the matter. Confusingly the officer listed a trailer (forgot to say the trailer is not the defendants) but did not remove it as well as all other goods required to satisfy. The costs include backdated interest of 5.5k and Sheriffs fees of 1.8k and vat on top. Sounds a lot for a visit. In 2007 other party was awarded court costs and my solicitor advised court and creditor that due to disability and unemployment (due to disability) unable to pay costs and that was that - unil the weekend. Any help appreciated any guides I can be pointed at etc? Many thanks. tooktoolong /not long enough

Due to a judgement in default Last Autumn( I did not receive the court papers but that is history and now dealt with) I was visited by two HCEOs from the Sheriffs Office. They were extremely intimidating, blocked my driveway and went around the back of my house. They waved a sheet of paper at me and demanded immediate payment of the court judgement plus their fees. After making a couple of quick call I told them a family member would pay then over the phone but they refused. This meant we had to transfer the money to my account which took a little longer. Whilst this was happening they clamped my car (which I need for business as I am self employed) and kept racking up the costs saying that they had sent for a tow truck. I enquired why as I was in the process of getting the money for them. etc etc. I paid up and would now like to have a go at getting some of the fees back as I know they have taken me to cleaners. I wrote and asked for a breakdown of their fees and am attaching their reply.

I have been involved in a long running legal battle and ended up the loser with a judgement of £42,000 made against me. This was to do with a business partnership that started in 2003 and was dissolved in 2008 with much acrimony. The other side then made claim against me on an address where they knew I was no longer living (as they owned it ) and obtained a judgement by default in 2008. I knew nothing about this judgement until September of 2012 when out of the blue a Debt Collecting agency wrote to me demanding payment of £41,000. The other side had waited for FOUR years before pressing their claim to allow the statutory interest on the original judgement to accrue to a nice healthy sum. I lodged an appeal for set aside but lost on a technicality in January of this year but the judge ordered a stay of 2 months before enforcement could begin. It may as well have been £42 million as I am unemployed and have no assets whatsoever other than talents in the I.T. area. However my age is against me in that I am 64 years old and trying to find a job is not too easy although I have never stopped trying to find work. The two months passed and enter stage left The Sheriffs Posse aka The Sheriffs Office of the Croydon Corral with a visit to my very small flat on the 9th of April. An attempt was made to levy on goods for the now increased sum of £46,700 but as nobody was at home a form 55 was simply pushed through the letter box. I telephoned the HCEO on the 9th of April and he simply laughed at the thought of being able to recover anything at all from where I am living and said the writ would be returned. No Walking Possession Agreement was signed nor any list of goods made - the endorsement was for 'all goods up to the value of the debt'. This would not appear to me to be a valid levy on goods but I stand to be corrected on this. I would not in any event have allowed the HCEO peaceable entry to my property had I been at home nor will I in the future. I have no goods, no money and no other assets and have beeen in receipt of benefits for the last four years. I made an application for stay of the writ of fifa using form N244 and this was granted by the District Judge with a 15minute hearing date scheduled for next week (W/C 29th April). Accompanying this was an application on form N245 giving an offer to pay - basically a token monthly payment which is now up and running with the other side and awaiting their response since the 18th of April. So, it would appear that I have two stays of execution in effect and under court process and a little relief from the nightmare world and stresses of the Alice in Wonderland logic of HCEA enforcement. Not acording to The Sheriffs Office who despite my co-operation with them say that 'they will proceed anyway' and 'unless the debt is settled in full the HCEO will reattend with the van to remove your goods and chattels' on Monday 29th or Tuesday the 30th of April. I have kept them fully informed and given them copies of all of the courts orders as well as my benefit claim documents to prove I am unemployed but this does not seem to matter to them. They are above the law it would appear and spurred on by the claimant who is utterly malicious they are doing their best to harass me. What do the learned members of the CAG forums think of this ?. Should I apply to the court on Monday for an injunction with form N16 to stop their enforcement attempts ?. Or perhaps I should ask the Judge who issued the original orders to clarify whether or not they can disregard his orders. Can The Sheriffs Men simply ignore the Courts orders and do what they wish - if so what is the point of having a due process of law ?. This I believe is a classsic example of the utter mess that this area of enforcement has fallen into. It truly is the Wild West. I am asking my M.P. to complain to the Justice Minister as this is symptomatic of the treatment of vulnerable people usually the least able to defend themselves by these HCEA's . Your thoughts and advice would be gratefully received. With thanks and regards

Hi, Thanks to anyone who may be able to help. Just a brief summary of my situatiion: I had a debt which got transferred to sheriffs office (was a genuine mix up of addresses and I never got a court hearing). They eventually visited and I paid £1700 of the £4500 owed. I agreed to pay £400 per month with the help of my family. In truth, we could never afford £400 but we panicked because they threatened to remove goods etc. I then contacted the court regarding what we could afford (can't remember what form I filled out) suggesting £50 per month. They set a hearing but the original solicitors dealing with the debt vacated the hearing and accepted monthly repayments of £50. 6 months on, I haven't missed a payment and recently increased my offer to £65 per month. The sheriffs office have now contacted me stating I have missed several payments with them. They are getting a bit rude and arsey over it, saying I should be paying them. As I now have an agreement in place, can they do anything re offering £400 per month? Thanks for any help and advice, much appreciated. Dean