Unpaid court fine - Notice of arrest

[jimlufc]

Hope I'm posting in the correct place.

 

I have received a letter this morning regarding a fine I received last year.

 

I was set up on a payment plan to pay £15 a week until it is cleared.

 

The letter states "a court enforcement officer is in possession of a warrant for you arrest because you have failed to comply with the above court order."

 

There is a phone number for the court enforcement officer which I have tried but he has finished for the day

so I contacted the central finance unit.

 

They told me that I am £15 in arrears and there is nothing they can do and I must speak with the enforcement officer.

 

I have missed a couple of payments but always made sure I caught up the following week which is obviously my own fault.

 

The letter states I must pay the remaining balance for £475 immediately or I will be arrested.

 

How quick is immediately?

 

When I contact the enforcement officer tomorrow what is likely to happen to me?

 

There is a slim possibility I could get the money together by Monday, or could the officer put me back on my repayment plan

providing I pay the 1 weeks arrears straight away?

 

Any help or advice would be great!

[jimlufc]

Unpaid court fine - Notice of arrest

Hope I'm posting in the correct place. I have received a letter this morning regarding a fine I received last year. I was set up on a payment plan to pay £15 a week until it is cleared. The letter states "a court enforcement officer is in possession of a warrant for you arrest because you have failed to comply with the above court order." There is a phone number for the court enforcement officer which I have tried but he has finished for the day so I contacted the central finance unit. They told me that I am £15 in arrears and there is nothing they can do and I must speak with the enforcement officer. I have missed a couple of payments but always made sure I caught up the following week which is obviously my own fault. The letter states I must pay the remaining balance for £475 immediately or I will be arrested. How quick is immediately? When I contact the enforcement officer tomorrow what is likely to happen to me? There is a slim possibility I could get the money together by Monday, or could the officer put me back on my repayment plan providing I pay the 1 weeks arrears straight away?

 

Any help or advice would be great!

[fkofilee]

Hang on... Could i ask you to put the letter on here in PDF format (Scanned) and remove all personal details?

 

Who is it that is threatening this? Whats this all about...? Too me it doesnt sound right as it would have to go really far for an arrest!

[jimlufc]

I don't hAve anything I can copy the letter with I'm afraid. The letter is red and from the hm courts & tribunals service. I was stupidly caught driving without insurance early last year. I set up an original plan at the time which due to a job change I struggled to keep to and reset it for the £15 a week. An arrest warrant for missing 1 weeks payment seems quite harsh to me, but I've obviously had enough chances to pay. Like I said in my original post I have missed a couple of payments but always caught up the following week.

[tomtubby]

Fortunately, unless I am mistaken your case is still with the court and has NOT been sent to an enforcement agent (bailiff) to enforce. At least that means that you will not be liable for their additional fees (up to £310).

 

A point that I would make is that for two days last week I was undergoing some training and spent a fair amount of the time in the Magistrates Court and I during that time six people were brought before the Magistrates after being arrested for failing to pay their fines or defaulting. The treatment may well seem harsh but I can assure you that the courts really are getting very tough indeed with fine defaults.

 

In just a few months time the collection of court fines is due to undergo substantial changes indeed. I will be writing more on this when I am in receipt of the relevant information.

 

When a debtor defaults with paying a court fine there are a number of sanctions available to the court. One being to issue a Warrant of Control and this will incur the debtor with bailiff enforcement with fees being charged up to £310. Websites with links to Freeman on the Land (and other debt avoidance groups) will try to claim that fees are not legal. This is not the case at all and the court will be happy to confirm this to you (as will any other responsible website/forum).

 

The court are also able to impose a Clamping Order (quite rare at the moment) or register the fine with Registry Trust. Each court have their own way of working and some favor bringing the debtor back to court under an arrest warrant. In all but one case that I came across last week the court REMITTED (wrote off) part of the fine. In your case, you must call the number on the letter in the morning. It is more than likely that the officer will come to your home and give you a notice to advise you that he has bailed you to attend the court at an appointed time. There should bo nothing to worry about.

 

Please post back in the morning after you have spoken with the officer. If you have any queries in the meantime please post back.

[jimlufc]

Thank you so much for your reply. It's very helpful. Been sat doing my finances and I would be able to pay the fine in total on Monday. My main concern is the "pay immediately" party. Obviously Monday is 4 days away and not quite immediate. How quickly do they follow up letters with a visit?

[tomtubby]

What you need to do is to call the Enforcement Officer in the morning. Do not evade making that call.

[jimlufc]

Phone call made. Will be paying in full on Monday.

[tomtubby]

Thank you for letting us know. Did he say anything else (as this could be helpful for others that may be in the same position).

[brassnecked]

Phone call made. Will be paying in full on Monday.

 

So Court accepted the offer, and called the dogs off?

[jimlufc]

Just that I had 2 options. 1 was to pay in full. 2 was to attend court on Tuesday morning and explain to the magistrate that I've had difficulty making the payment every week and they would probably accept this and perhaps even lower the payment. The best thing I did was contacting him rather than ignoring the letter.

[old bill]

Just out of curiosity, did the letter have a Royal crest and HMCTS namestyle on it? I have seen examples, in the Devon & Cornwall Police area, purporting to have been issued by a genuine magistrates court, threatening arrest, but on making enquiries, neither the magistrates court or the police knew nothing about it.

[jimlufc]

Yeah. Top left hand corner.

[old bill]

As long as it was a genuine HMCTS letterheading, that's fine. The example I referred to in my post appeared to be genuine, but it turned out that an EA employed by a certain civil enforcement company had cobbled it together and had gone around pushing the home-made threat-o-grams through people's doors. Not surprisingly, the EA responsible was not exactly flavour of the month with the powers-that-be, especially when those who had received the threat-o-grams rang the magistrates court asking what was going on as a number had already paid their fines or the courts had rescinded warrants and put alternative forms of enforcement in place.