Claiming back court fines

[Sludlow]

I recently received a letter from Marstons (have seen a lot about their tactics on this site) asking for £550 to be paid in full to clear an outstanding Court Fine. I received the letter under a week ago and telephoned Marstons on the day it was delivered. The person I spoke to informed me that it was a fine for not returning a V5 log book to DVLA and that it dated back to just under a year ago. I explained that I knew nothing about this ( I moved addresses and all the correspondence,if there was any, was sent to my previous address).

 

I was told that there was nothing they could do about this and that I could either pay the full amount now or pay in 2 instalments over the next month and that if I was unaware of the original fine, I would still need to pay them and then speak to the court about my dispute.

 

My question is this, if i pay Marstons, essentially to stop the Bailiffs turning up, how do I then go about getting my money back if I prove that I had no idea about the original fine?

[sequenci]

Hello there, welcome to CAG.

 

A quick question for you. Did youupdate your address details with the DVLA when you moved?

 

Advice will differ depending on the answer to the question!

 

Best wishes,

 

Seq.

[Sludlow]

The V5 in questions was sent off to them and as I then brought another car they were fully aware of the change of vehicle and change of address. It wasn't until speaking to Marstons that they explained all the letters regarding the fine, house calls for non payment and the court letters went to my previous address. They also explained that it wasn't until it had got to court for non payment and handed over to them, that they did a trace and found I had moved to where I am now. This was back in Dec 2011 yet they hadn't contacted me at this address until last week.

[brassnecked]

Could you contact the court and file an out of time, as all the correspondence went to a previous address? If this was accepted it would take the bailiff out of the equation