I received a letter on Friday saying there is a police warrant out for my immediate arrest. It's nightmarish not least because it's now Sunday night and on Tuesday morning I am due to fly to the USA.

Apparently there was a hearing at the local magistrates court on Tuesday (the type of hearing where you may get sent to prison) and non-attendance meant the magistrate ordered the warrant, adding costs for issuing it to the alleged outstanding amount.

Not only have I paid all council tax, but I received no summons or any court papers about all this.

However, what I do know is that a couple of months ago a bailiff came with a scrappy letter through the door saying I would be under arrest if I did not pay certain (rather ancient) council tax amounts. The letter detailed them and he said I could call or visit the council tax office to pay them. If not I would be going to appear before the magistrates 'in the near future'.

Over the years various very threatening and frightening letters had arrived from bailiffs, and in the end I just didn't open them. They always seemed to have fictitious and various company names - this doorstep bailiff was apparently from 'The National Warrant Office', the address of which I tracked on the internet to a retirement home in Kent.

Also, there is an issue that the amounts outstanding were from years where I was almost continuously unemployed, but being on jobseekers allowance you still have to pay some of the amount out of your dole - you don't get council tax benefit for the whole thing. I remember that how the arrears had arisen was it had taken so many months in both of the two cases to get a benefit award made, that by the time they told you you had to pay £100 yourself, you could hardly budget for it out of your weekly dole.

Anyway, the fact I owed them was not an issue and obviously one day they were going to catch up with me. Of course by now there were numerous bailiff costs added (ie now they totalled almost double the original amounts). But being in a better financial position, I realised I should get them paid off pronto.

So - I went and paid them off in their entirety at the council office, first asking staff to print me out proof of the alleged amounts (which actually did correspond to the bailiff's). I paid in cash and got a receipt for each.

So - how did the case get to court? How could anyone bothering to go there for the prosecution not check that I had paid? Why did it then take two days for me to receive a letter from the council offices 200 yards from my door to tell me of my fugitive and most wanted status?

I called the Citizens Advice Bureau helpline immediately: go up to the court, they said. The court said they couldn't help: go to the council and demand to be seen. I went to the council offices (luckily, luckily these are all within 5 minutes walk of me and each other): get out or we'll get security. Now 5.30 - council, CAB, courts all shutting for the weekend. I called the police: walk into the nearest station, but please realise you will be turning yourself in and be remanded in custody if there is a warrant out for your arrest.

Can you imagine the horror of all this? I have a small business. I have to trade the next day or I don't eat, and nor do 8 staff who are due to work for me. I have social things, house things, personal things to get done over the weekend. I can't actually do a runner. And I have a block full of neighbours to see an arrest take place. I have a sick baby niece in Washington DC who I may never see again.

An hour later I pull myself together and decide I'm going to take it all on the chin, also suspecting that the likelihood of central London Met police arresting you in anything other than a dramatic dawn raid on a Monday morning is against the odds - although hours of searching through Google confirms it often happens.

I amazingly manage to get to Sunday night as a free woman, most business finished, and decide to call the local police station (not the national line) in the knowledge that it may prompt them to come round and arrest. No one in the office (it's only rural old central London after all) I have to leave a voicemail and no-one has called me back. And now I am thinking - there's only 36 hours till I am due to board that plane. I just want this to be over.

You know, what is this? Where was the summons? (oh yeah, they got my address wrong, huh...........)

Moreover, what happened to the cash? Did it get stolen?

I will of course insist that the police to go down to the council office and investigate the officer and the cashiers.

But - and these are the answers I seek - how long could it take to get all these charges dropped and wiped? Can this all happen at once? What would my rights when the police do arrest?

And then is there any civil action I can bring against the council for all this?

Anyone out there know??

Many thanks!

PS A warrant WITHOUT BAIL

right

no-one that can help is going to read this thread unless you strip all all crap from it.

just leave the actual meat and facts then we might be able to understand it.

sorry but thats the way i see it.

its a no bail warrant, so don't expect any favours.

pers, i would expect the system to get its brain ingear and resolve the issue itself.

if it were me & IF i have fathomed out the meat correctly, you have paid, the warrant should now have be cancelled.

don't know what you do but when the stations are manned [so to speak] it should be resolved easily for you to take your trip.

but don't try anf travel [esp to the usa ] if it is still in force.

dx

sri best i can do.

Thank you, dx for your reply and the information you gave

Yes, sorry if the post is long, but obviously we don't know the law, so it seems best to give out as much info as possible in case we have overlooked the importance of a certain event or action.

Plus I am writing at an emotionally charged time and so tend to add more personal info to illustrate the dilemma and knock-on effects as it seems to me now. A detailed, dramatic story is what keeps me reading other posters' threads. But I understand not everyone feels the same!!

Best wishes and thanks

PS the point is that the council and courts are closed over the weekend for any verification of my receipts against the info the police have, and anyway the first phone call to the police revealed that it wasn't going to be so simple as showing up with these receipts.

Now I left that bit out!

eh. i bet by 12noon it will be sorted.

we are all aware you ca do nothing over the w/end, padding the post out with pers dilemmas does nothing to focus those that might be able to help.

it just gives three screens to wade thru to find the actual facts.

p'haps your first port of call is the court that issued the warrant & to get them to check it has been satisfied, .........

then enjoy as much as you can your trip,

hope the offspring gets better BTW

dx

westminster abi, please post back and let us know how you get on. I personally like a good story to read, whilst appreciating it ain't a barrel of laughs for the author!

I hope you get this sorted today, what a horrifying story!