Need urgent advice please

[ponies]

Hi, I am hoping someone can give me some advice urgently.

Last year I was given fines for motoring offences of £535 by Northamtom magistrates courts, even though I sent in a statement of incomings and outgoings which proved I am left with virtually nothing each month I was told I had to pay the lot in one go, as I had a baby a few days before the court hearing I put it to the back of my mind and hoped it would go away (stupid I know! )

This has been passed onto Drakes Baillifs and I was wondering, seeing as this is action to recover unpaid fines, do the same principles apply as with normal baillif collections (ie can't force entry, can offer to make affordable payments etc)

What is worrying me is that on the last letter I received from them (dated 7th March) they are stating that the actions they can take are- forcing entry and removing goods, application to bankrupt me, fine recorded in register of Judgements, orders and fines, fine may be increased but most worringly is they are saying they can issue a warrant for arrest:o

Can I use the template letter stickied at the top of this section that applies to baillifs collecting council tax arrears and modify it to suit these circumstances? Or do these baillifs have different rights as this is collection of fines?

Please please someone advise, I am terrified to leave the house in case they break in and terrfied to stay in in case they arrest me

I am supposed to pay them the full amount by today (I received the letter dated 7th on the 10th but have to pay within 7 days of date of letter, as the letter was delivered by hand I presumed the date was the same as the actual date it was received but apparently not )

Can anyone advise?

[tomtubby]

The letter you have received SHOULD have said that they have charged you an additional amount of £50 for admin costs. Is this correct?

Drakes contract with the courts does provide for them to accept monthly payments but the maximum period of repayment is only 90 days.

If you cannot pay all of the money at once, please do WRITE to the company without DELAY and offer a repayment proposal.

The bailiff collecting this fine COULD break into your property but he woule need to go back to court to get the authority and that would be very RARE indeed.

NO you WILL NOT be arrested. This would apply if you refused point blank to address this and refused to pay. By offering repayments you cannot be in this category.

Finally, the warrant MUST be shown to you if the bailiff visits....and it cannot be enforced if it is over 120 days old !!

[ponies]

Thanks Tomtubby.

I am absolutely petrified about this, there is no way I can afford to pay this over 90 days, I just feel suicidal at the moment
I can't believe I let my kids down by getting in this situation. I think I just ignored it or had other things on my mind due to having post natal depression last year. I doubt I will even be able to get something such as a GP letter with regards to my PND as I have recently changed GP's and my new GP hasn't even sent off for my notes yet so I presume this will take time- something I don't have

[tomtubby]

Firstly, DO NOT let the bailiff into your home. We have a template letter on our website which I will send over to you that MUST be sent IMMEDIATELY to Drakes by e-mail with a hard copy in the post.

Can you send me a PM to remind me.

I would also suggest that you send a message to John Mc Kenna who is himself a Bailiff with a lot of experience on these fines.