Urgent help-Fined for No TV Licence but no Collection Order Received.

[Sick Of Legal Bullies]

I am writing this for my daughter in law who is 4 months pregnant and not very well.

 

She was fined £65 in September apparantly for no TV licence-she has had no correspondence relating to this from the court-NO Collection order.

 

Yesterday Collectica Baliffs put a note through her door to say they will enter her house and remove her goods-and that the outstanding amount is now £365- Baliffs have put a £300 charge on this-extortionate is not the word.

 

Any advise would be appreciated as to how to proceed as she has no paperwork from the court.

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

you need to tell the court that

she received no further steps notice

 

however it should have been paid then ,,, did she?

 

those charges for bailiff involvement are about right I think? £85 + £215

though is the £85 not a letter charge? I forget

[Sick Of Legal Bullies]

She has had nothing at all

[unclebulgaria67]

She has had nothing at all

 

She needs to attend the court urgently to swear a statutory declaration that she has not received any paperwork from the court including a further steps notice. Hopefully this will be accepted and she can just pay the fine to the court.

 

I presume that her TV licence lapsed because of non payment. TV licencing then sent a letter asking why no TV licence at the address and then because they did not receive any response, it has led to a fine. If she has moved address, perhaps the paperwork has gone to a previous address.

[tomtubby]

The amount of the fine is firstly very odd. £65 is not the normal amount for a TV Licence fine.

 

You need to ascertain the following from her:

 

Did she allow a TV Licence inspector into her home or alternatively, did she speak to him at the door?

 

Did she receive a summons from the court?

 

Did she receive a Further Steps Notice from the court?

 

The FSN is very important and there is a legal requirement on the court to send a FSN to the debtor as effectively a final reminder warning of the consequences of non payment and stating that if the bailiff attends she will be liable for fees of £300.

 

If she genuinely knew nothing about this conviction then it is a simple matter of calling the court to arrange for a Statutory Declaration to be sworn. At one time courts were quite happy to allow stat dec' to be submitted by post or email but this is very rarely ever allowed and instead, the individual is normally asked to attend court. The process of filing a stat dec is very simple and straight forward but before advising to file such an application it will be necessary to know the answer to the above questions.

[Sick Of Legal Bullies]

she pleaded guilty by post-yes unusual but feinitely £65 fine-no further steps or anything else.

[tomtubby]

If she pleaded guilty by post she possibly will have a problem with a Statutory Declaration given that the purpose of them is to effectively reverse a conviction that had been imposed without their knowledge. This is usually a common situation with motorists with speeding fines and where the notices had been sent to a previous address.

 

If she pleaded guilty she should have received a Collection Order AND a Further Steps Notice. What she needs to do is to call the issuing court and explain that after writing to the court she heard nothing further and maybe assumed that the proposed conviction has been dismissed etc. Some courts are more willing than others to allow a stat dec where a Further Steps Notice had not been received.

 

The problem that I have however is still with the amount of £65. I will check in a moment to see the normal fine rate and post back.

[tomtubby]

As I have mentioned above, I am worried about the amount of fine only being for £65 and you will see from the link below that the amount of fine can range from as little as £55 (for using a TV without a licence for 2 weeks) through to a fine of £200 for using a TV without a licence for 2 months or more.

 

However, in EVERY case the court impose a Victim Surcharge of £90 and award the Capita Court Presenter "legal fees" of £90.

 

As you will see, even without the fine the 'VC' will be £20 and 'costs' of £90 making £110.

 

http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/tv-licensing-court-observation.html

 

Your daughter needs to check this fine out with the court as I would not like to advise her to file a Statutory Declaration without first making some checks.

[Sick Of Legal Bullies]

I know I have spoken to the Court about this but it is right-perhaps they are sick of the TV licensing people?

[Sick Of Legal Bullies]

It is definitely right. The Court officer was suprised by it also.

[tomtubby]

 

I know I have spoken to the Court about this but it is right-perhaps they are sick of the TV licensing people?

 

 

The courts would certainly be sick of TV Licensing if they took 10 minutes to read this thread that I started a few months ago and which has been viewed over 14,000 times !!!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?415887-Magistrate-Court-FINES-and-Bailiff-fees...An-official-response-from-HMCTS