Help re Philips Bailiff and Debt Recovery

[mattmcfc1986]

Hi Iam in need of some asisstance and am hoping someone on here can help.....I have recently received a ''notice of distress warrant'' from a baliff & debt recovery agents called ''Philips''.The letter states that '' You are hereby given formal notice that we are in receipt of a distress warrant for non payment of a magistrates fine and have been instructed by South West London to execute the warrant with immediate effect''. This letter was very strange as it wasnt dated and could of been sat unopened for weeks as it was sent to my mums address.To my knowledge I have never received any fine from South West London magistrates court. I rang Philips who have got to have teh rudest call centres employees every as all they did was talk over me and demand payment. I eventually got through to a sensible person who advised me that it was a fine for non payment of road tax but could not tell me when or what car. I pay my car tax online as soon as the reminder comes through so there is no way I have not paid my road tax.Philips demanded payment but I refused until they provided me details of why I owed money. All they gave me was a ref number 10041536 U and told me to contact South West London Magistrates Fines office on 08459 400 111. After selecting option 2 i was on hold for 2 hours and in then end had to terminate my phone call. I started panicing and because the letter was sent to my mums address set up a payment agreement with Philips for £13.50 per week. I have again tried to contact the court and have even emailed them, I still have not had a response. I then rang up Philps to tell them of this a refused my 2nd weeks payment until they provided me details of why I owe this money as I couldnt get through to the court. They then put my file in dispute. Its now a week later and Philips have called me text me 3 times and called me twice on Friday 13th and 3 times today monday 16/05/2011 ....the 3rd time today I answered and the demanded that i now pay the balance in full otherwise they will send baliffs round to my mums address. I stated that my file was under dispute. They replied with ''that has now ended'', I asked them to explain this and all they kept saying was ''its ended'' or ''because it has''.What so I do next apart from continue to attempt to get hold of the court ?? Will Philips actually send someone round to my mums house ? If so how can I prevent this ?Any help at all would be much appreciated.Thanks in advanceMatt

[ploddertom]

Does your mum know what has been happening?

 

PT

[ploddertom]

Look at this thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?165753-MAGISTRATE-COURT-FINES.-Template-of-a-Statutory-Declaration.

 

PT

[mattmcfc1986]

Thats very helpfull thanks ...however what if I dont have the exact dates and exactly what I was supposedly fined for and I certainly do not know when my hearing was and how much my fine was originally ?

[hallowitch]

ve a read of this

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?305605-trying-to-contact-marston-group

[Tingy]

Excellent advice folks - brilliant link HW, hadn't read that one!

 

OP - in case you don't know Tom Tubby runs a business advising on bailiff problems for a living, and the others who've reponded to you are among the most highly respected on the site for bailiff problems.

[tomtubby]

The matter of the letters from Philips is of concern and personally, I know of complaints that have been made to the Office of Fair Trading concerning the lack of information on the letters and the fact that they are UNDATED. Personally I have seen approx 200 undated letters since the beginning of the year and frankly, as this company are representing HMCS I am surprised that this practice is continuing.

 

Yesterday, I spoke with a lady in a similar position as you and she went to her local Magistrates Court to make enquiries and they were able to look up details on their main computer system to find out which court issued the Distress Warrant.

 

From experience, many of these FINES are in dispute as summonses had been sent to old address etc and that is why a Statutory Declaration can be signed and this will REVOKE the fine and all bailiff fees will also be removed.