Magistrate Court FINES and Bailiff fees......

[wonkeydonkey]

Wonkeydonkey:

 

All you have said is true, the justice system in relation to the collection of outstanding fines seriously needs to be reviewed. The bailiff has a job to do not a good one but its a job. This is why HMRC take all the monies they can at the time of sentencing, hand you a receipt and tell you then if you fail to pay this will happen.

 

If the defendant then ignores this fact they chose to be in such a position, they can not think it will go away it wont, maybe at time of sentencing they should give a leaflet out stating what is/not the best way to deal with the fine.

 

This is always going to be a very hard subject to handle at the best of times is it not ? At the end of the day a financial review hearing is a way to go, at least the court then will see you are trying the best you can.

 

MM

. It is indeed a matter of choice but for the majority a forced decision and not deliberate avoidance of their obligations, when faced with putting food on the table or paying a fine it will always result in the defendant taking the former option.

 

I doubt handing a leaflet to a defendant outlining the consequences of not paying an imposed fine would achieve very much, what is needed is a way of ensuring it is the defendant who is made to address the given punishment and not their depending families.

[tomtubby]

I have started a new thread with a copy of the Forced Entry Protocol and a further thread can be found in the "sticky" section.

 

It is important to also note that on the Further Steps Notice it states very clearly that if the amount of court fine is not paid to the court within 10 working days ( of the date of the notice) that the Fines Officer will take one or more of the steps outlined in the FSN. With regards to a Distress Warrant the Further Steps Notice states as follows:

 

'A Distress Warrant being issued to the bailiffs for the seizure of the goods (which will incur additional costs of up to £300).

[josephbloggs]

Tomtubby, i have had the opportunity last night and this morning to read through all the information you have put together in respect of the fees and procedures for magistrate court fines. Very well put together i must say, and that along with your advice regarding form 4 complaints and the other thread about clamping all make for very interesting reading.

Now to my point, which is have you considered rolling this sound advice out to the citizens advice bureau? I think they would benefit greatly from the information set out.

some cab's have the most awful advice, and i saw a newspaper article a few months ago from the local paper in ashfield (nottingham) with their local cab insisting that when someone gets a letter from marston or collectica iro a court fine they must ignore them and pay the court directly!

[brassnecked]

Tomtubby, i have had the opportunity last night and this morning to read through all the information you have put together in respect of the fees and procedures for magistrate court fines. Very well put together i must say, and that along with your advice regarding form 4 complaints and the other thread about clamping all make for very interesting reading.

Now to my point, which is have you considered rolling this sound advice out to the citizens advice bureau? I think they would benefit greatly from the information set out.

some cab's have the most awful advice, and i saw a newspaper article a few months ago from the local paper in ashfield (nottingham) with their local cab insisting that when someone gets a letter from marston or collectica iro a court fine they must ignore them and pay the court directly!

 

A great sentiment, and a real IF ONLY! but you will find that CAB consider they know better unfortunately, so will ignore tomtubby's wealth of knowledge as it doesn't fit in with their system.

[tomtubby]

Joseph,

 

Thank you for your kind words...they are very much appreciated. In fact, I am in the process of compiling a "Fact Sheet" which will be widely distributed.

[welshblood]

Hi i have read many of the comments by tomtubby but still not to clear for my own personal bailiff problem.

i Had a traffic fine that went to courts it was only £90 i arranged with the court to pay by end of august. as of 30th of august i had £30 left. i could only pay the £15 on the 30th and then paid the final 15 on 5th sept. As far as i was concerned it was paid and dealt with. i received a red note from exell demanding £300 for fees on 25th of october. i spoke to bailiffs and court office who both confirm fine was paid. but court sent it to bailiffs on 31st august stating i owed £30 and failed to process my final 2 payments until 7th sept. no letters from bailiffs just a note pushed through door at silly o clock in the morning demanding £300. the £300 is for fees only no fine. but my fine was paid over a month before and they still visited and demanded money. they threaten to call back to remove goods. i have used the templates from another site (before finding this thread) but the response i had from exell is that my info is wrong and they WILL return forthwith if i dont pay. Do i Have to pay. where do i stand. any clarification/ advise would be a great help

[tomtubby]

Can you clarify when the court fine was imposed?

 

When the arrangement was made with the court as to the repayment, was this made at the time of the conviction or had you fallen into arrears?

 

Did you receive a Further Steps Notice advising of the arrears and if so, what date was the FSN issued?

 

 

When you were unable to afford the repayment in August did you call the court?

 

Have you spoken with the court to ascertain the PRECISE date that a Distress Warrant had been issued.

 

I am slight concerned to hear that the court passed the debt to Excel on 30th August given that you had an agreement to pay the court by the end of the month?

 

What date did they advise Excel of the final payment.

 

If Excel had been instructed at the end of August it is very odd that they until the END of October to send a notice? This does not seen right at all.

 

I am not surprised to hear that Excel are saying that the information on another site is wrong. If you have a careful look at the site in question you will see that there is not ONE thread yet where the matter has been resolved. However, you will see that there are MANY threads where both the courts and bailiff providers are stating that the information provided is not correct.

[welshblood]

The incident happened 29th may this year it was an on the spot fixed penalty notice for driving an overweight van. i did not pay original fine of £60. fine went up to £90 in July and i then arranged to pay in full by end of august with the court after i received a further steps notice at the end of july

 

I was late paying the last payment of £15. I didn't call the court as the 30th fell on a friday and i made the payment online after 4pm when the court office closed.

 

I paid the remaining £15 on the Tuesday after (3rd sept). And thought it was all settled and done with. ( I Now realise i should of called on the friday or the monday just to inform them it would be late)

 

I had no correspondence from the courts or exell stating the debt was still outstanding. Until i received the red note through the door 2 weeks ago i called the bailiff and she said they no there's no debt to pay to the court and the £300 is just for there fees. - i had not dealt with them in any way regarding the matter until i had this notice through the door

 

I called the court and they said it was sent to exell automatically by there system on the 31st Aug. and that was the date of the distress warrant but even if i paid the £30 on the 30th they didn't process payments until the following week even though £15 left my bank on 30th and the other £15 left on the 3rd sept. they said i should of made the payment before the 30th as it can take up to 5 days to process.they confirmed the 1st payment i made to them and told exel on the 2nd sept and advised them when the final payment was made when the account was cleared on the court system on the 7th Sept.

 

Exel apparently sent a letter to me on the 2nd sept. never had it so i don't no what it was. but they charged me £85 and then £215 for the letter drop 2 weeks ago.

 

i can understand if i left it until a week or so ago to pay the last payment.i would understand why i had to pay fees then. but it was cleared on the courts system by the end of the following week, 8 weeks ago. surly common sense should pro vale somewhere as exell have known there was no debt to collect from 7th sept.

 

I have asked to see a copy of the distress warrant to check the dates but they say they don't hold a hard copy its only on there tablets. but i can arrange to see it if i go to Port Talbot Court. (an hour away) not sure how long it takes to obtain a distresswarrant.

 

Not sure what to do ( The right thing to do)

[tomtubby]

I started this thread just 6 months ago and it is clearly of huge significance given that in that short period the thread has been viewed over 8,000 times!!!!

 

Today, there has been an important development regarding the matter of bailiff fees for enforcing Magistrates Court Distress Warrant and instead of making this thread any longer I will start a new thread this afternoon.

 

As many people will know the subject of court fees for enforcing criminal fines has been the subject of much debate due to misinformation given to debtors by a handful of internet sites. Yesterday the owner of one of the sites posted the following:

"Its official"!!!

 

"HMCTS admits "sum adjudged" nothing to do with bailiffs fees"

 

If anyone was expecting to see a letter from HMCTS they would have been bitterly disappointed. Instead, this "official" evidence .......was a YouTube video!!!

 

The video is 10 minutes long and is a conversation with a bailiff enforcing a Distress Warrant. There is one other short video where the debtor not only provides her name and full address....but her date of birth as well. Very silly indeed.