Thread: The law allows them to do this?

My first post, sorry it’s lengthy but very serious; I would love to hear some feedback, thanks in advance.
Working as a self-employed courier in London for approximately 1 year, inevitably I would get parking tickets from various London boroughs, and instead of contesting them I would just pay them, and can prove I paid quite a lot in parking fines. If they have a photo of my vehicle parked while the meter has ran out of time, then I have no basis to contest right?
It was not until after I left that job that I learned I could have rightfully contested my parking tickets by showing my daily worksheet, and that I was just doing my job, and I could have avoided paying over half of them! I paid a huge amount of money that year in fines, which I cannot even claim as expenses!!
I moved address towards the end of that year, and almost a year after that I went to my old address to check for mail. I was horrified when the new occupants handed me a bag full of threatening letters from debt collectors, saying I owe ridiculous amounts of money, and the new occupants regularly get visits from bailiffs looking for me and my vehicle. On average they get one or two visits per week, and they ignore that they’re told I don’t live there anymore. I can only imagine that a couple of tickets have evaded me by not being stuck on my windscreen, and “automatically” posted to me.
Not too long ago I found my vehicle clamped with a notice asking for £500, and I paid it promptly (I wasn’t even aware I owed anything to that company), soon after I declared my vehicle SORN and have been keeping it off the road, and did not change my address on my driving license on purpose out of fear.
I am more than terrified; there is no way I can even pay a quarter of what I am being charged! How does a £40 fine become nearly £500+ each? How do debt collectors justify such huge increases, are they allowed to do this by law? I have wanted to sell the vehicle for a while now, but I want these debt-collectors off my back first or else the new owner will probably get clamped on their first week!
Someone advised me to get in contact with the “Northampton county court”, but I don’t know what to say or how to go about doing this, if it is what needs to be done. Someone else advised me that I should declare myself personally bankrupt, but I have no idea how or what it involves either – for what it’s worth, I am currently unemployed and receiving JSA.
Question: If the relevant London boroughs have passed my debt onto debt-collectors, does this mean they have wiped my parking offences clean, and the debt-collectors are my only concern? This issue has put my life on hold in many ways, and filled me with fear. What can I do?

Thanks for your time to read this,
NBG

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Hello Pin, thanks alot for your reply. I have to say its hard to understand what you've said, so I will try in my own words...

I have a large bag full of original letters posted to me by various debt collectors, so you are saying I should call each of them saying they should be contacted soon by TEC(?) telling them I have initiated a Statuatory Declaration(?) file at TEC(?), which should halt them visiting my old house. - Then I pay each original fine (£40) to the initial council to satisfy them? I dont think I should give them my new address!

(?) = I have no idea what it means. Thanks, NBG

You need to first establish how many fines you have, when and where they occurred. Can you give us a list?

Yes I can give a list - but i'm still compiling it! Unsure about a couple of things:

Should I give my old address in the PE2/PE3 forms (which is still the address on my license)? The new occupants will give me a phonecall immediately when they get post for me.

On the forms it asks for a list of the PCNs (parking) but there is one which has a photo of me turning left near Liverpool Street station, where there is a tiny little sign saying I can't do so during certain hours. That is not a pcn is it? That (among a few others) was automatically posted to my old address with no way of me knowing about it. So do I include that in my list of PCNs?

Don't fill out any forms yet - let us see the list.

Your Liverpool St document sounds like a pcn. They can be served by post.

half-way through compiling it, okay, what would you like to see? List of pcn numbers? Dates? If each PCN has been passed onto bailiffs, do the bailiffs consolidate more than one PCN into a single one of their own?