Unlawful vehicle removal by Waltham Forest Council and Newlyns PLC

[oz-uk]

Hi all. In December 3rd my car was removed for alleged parking contraventions. My issue is that there was no court case with no judge and no paperwork was served to me regarding this issue.

 

There was no warrant of execution, I was not summonsed to represent myself in court over this or any matter pertaining to my car or any charges that were on it. I think they have acted unlawfully. Am I correct or can they really do just as they please?

 

I want to contest this as police will not do anything, they say it is a civil case and I should contact the council in question. I have done this and they say they have done everything by the law. I do not believe them unless this is not the United Kingdom anymore.

 

What can I do about this? Can I take them to court over this matter? Someone is now trying to register this car and I cannot stop them. I want to stop this from happening. I want to file a claim in the court, is this something i can do?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Oz

[renegadeimp]

Can you give us some background on this issue please?

[oz-uk]

yes of course. i live in a cul-de-sac and they recently put a yellow line on the road with no signs or anything. The road is used by mechanics all day so there are cars parked all over the road all over the pavements every day. one parking attendant would give tickets to my car parked outside my private property every morning at 8am. He really had it in for me but all of the tickets were not legal as they didnt allow for any time for stopping/loading. he was giving a ticket after 1 minute of observation and it was always a code 1.

 

There may have been other tickets too, i have never paid any ticket as i dont have any free money to give away.

 

Then one day I noticed my father standing by the car with a van crossing it. it looked wrong so i went to investigate. I discovered he was claiming to be a bailiff and he said they were removing my car which was insured legally parked at the time and mot and taxed. I got in the car to drive it off and the driver of this white van allegedly a bailiff with no ID or paperwork from the court. While i was trying to drive off, the van driver was using his van as a barricade to stop me from driving further. I became worried at this point so went into my property. Then out of no where a man appears with a hammer and starts smashing this bailiffs van up. I became worried so i took my father and vacated the area to prevent any trouble.

 

There were letters I have been sending back as i did not know what they were concerning. Just Newlyns PLC with some reference numbers. I never take notice of those as i have hundreds of them all the time. The council didnt send me anything and neither did the courts to contend anything or represent myself in court.

 

Do they not need a court order to execute a warrant? Doesnt a judge need to sign it and dont I get an opportunity to represent my case or are they allowed just to come and collect things as they see fit?

 

If theres anything else you would like to know please ask. And thanks again

[renegadeimp]

Yes they do need a warrant. However, who was the person with the hammer? Were the police called?

[oz-uk]

well i have had police come to my door asking about the man with the hammer. to that i answered no comment at the police station and they didnt prosecute on that matter as im guessing there was insufficient evidence. For that reason i am not divulging any more info on that particular incident. but suffice it to say that it is over with.

[ploddertom]

Did you appeal any of the tickets? If so what were the results?

 

It sounds as if that as no payment was forthcoming a Warrant of Execution was issued - possibly for each ticket - and the Council passed them to the Bailiffs. Have you asked the Bailiffs to provide you with any details, or breakdown of charges? have you asked to see the Warrant(s) they have? The warrants are issued via the Traffic Enforcement Centre and it is basically an automated process.

[oz-uk]

I didnt contest any of the tickets. i dont really do that. I asked newlyns and waltham forest, newlyns just referred me back to waltham forest council and they sent me a letter with the ticket codes but no other information on them.

 

Just out of interest how can a court be automated? if there is no court room and no judge, where exactly is the court? where is the judge? who signed the warrant? Are they doing this by computer? is this lawful? to convict someone in their absence, take their propert in their absence with a warrant that was signed by a computer where there was no court room, no judge with no wet ink signature on the warrant, i was never ever server notice of this warrant? Do i have any case at all? Or should i just forget about this one?

 

I did ask to see the warrants, they never produced them except for a file with some references to the PCN's.

Edited March 11, 2013 by oz-uk

[renegadeimp]

Please edit your post oz, as the link reveals personal info and is against CAG's rules.

[oz-uk]

im not sure what you want me to edit? you want me to remove the link or is it something in the letters in the links u want me to remove?

[oz-uk]

i just realised what ive done....sorry

[renegadeimp]

Thats OK. can you edit your link out for now?

[oz-uk]

ive basically edited the personal info from the images in the link. do you want me to remove the link all together? is it linking to external sites that is not allowed?

[renegadeimp]

The site it links to, the images contain your name, car reg, reference numbers etc.

[oz-uk]

right ok i will remove the link

[oz-uk]

ok its done

[Jamberson]

Parking has been widely decriminalised. There is not a formal court process for penalty charges. You have a right to appeal them, but as you said above, you don't do that.

 

In which case, yes, they can take the car and auction it off to settle the uncontested debts you have racked up.

 

There's almost nothing you can do. If you don't exercise your right of appeal, you've lost without trying.

[renegadeimp]

Well, according to his now deleted link, he has 5 PCN's and 14 other outstanding tickets with them.

 

 

Anyhow, forget that for now. Can i ask why you never challenged any of these tickets?

[oz-uk]

I wasnt given any chance to appeal. but not to worry i just wanted to see if i had a case but as usual the people are wrong and the authorities are right even when they are wrong. I had a feeling we live in a common law jurisdiction in this country where civil procedure rules require that a case go to court with a room and a judge? and i should be given the chance to represent myself. where was the court room?, at which point did i give away this right?

 

anyway, thank you so much for all your support.

[renegadeimp]

You can appeal you just need to go the right way about doing it. Did you recieve any of the notices or court documents? If not, perhaps make a stat declaration to that effect and get it back to the courts?

[Jamberson]

You have a right to contest the matter, but outside a courtroom. The letters you received and sent back spelled all this out to you and gave you the opportunity to do that. You didn't exercise your rights.

[oz-uk]

Can i not take the council or newlyns to court? i really dont think they followed correct procedure. theres definately something very fishy about the way this was all done.

[oz-uk]

I didnt receive any of the notices from the borough. i didnt receive any summons from any court. i have a feeling they bypassed it and sent it straight to the bailiffs. I should know if they are going to come for my property,no?

[oz-uk]

My rights are to get a court summons, the court room should contain a judge and he/she should give a ruling and sign a court order to be recovered by certificated bailiffs. the bailiff needs to present the owner of the property with a warrant of execution from the judge with a wet ink signature. That should be shown to me before executing the warrant. These are the issues i have. Is there not also a law that says bailiffs cannot take property without the owner being present? Im sure there is a case about this.

[Jamberson]

You have a very slender chance of recovering some money if you could prove that you did not receive the due notices, but you said in post 3:

 

There were letters I have been sending back as i did not know what they were concerning.

 

Do you know who these letters were from? The council, or the bailiff? Who did you send them back to?

[oz-uk]

from the bailiffs, but many of them were sent back unopened. there are some that i am not aware who they were from