Hi, due to the problems outlined in my thread on debt collection, I don't want to name them just yet and give any prior warning to them about the legal action I will be seeking, otherwise I would. All I can say is they are very profitable certificated bailiffs.

Mrswestham, the very sad thing is the whole time I was there I only ever heard of form 4 a couple of times and it was just from people calling up saying they were going to look into it, not once did I hear of any actual action taking place against the bailiff. This is what gets to me the most, they get away with everything and until people start standing up for themselves and standing up against the bailiffs then it will just keep happening. To be honest I'm not sure of any cases where the form 4 action has ever led to legal action against a bailiff but I'm sure it must have at some point. Unless it is irregular distress such as wrong forms, excessive fees etc then it is quite hard to prove what a bailiff has done wrong. Zosaphine, as far as I know yes a bailiff can charge for each pcn, that's what we did anyway but as you can tell, the company I worked for weren't too good at sticking to regulations! I'm pretty certain they can charge for each one though. We also charged the full amount for second visit even if no levy was done but whether that is legal I will have a look into it for you tomorrow. Wikileaks looks very interesting! I will see what I can get hold of because I still have friends who work there.

Hi all, there is a thread in the debt collection forum but thought I would add one here. As the topic says, I used to work for a bailiff firm so I have lots of inside knowledge and experience. Let me know if you need to know anything at all and I'll do my best. Thanks

I agree and am more than willing to help. I used to work for a bailiff company so I have a lot of knowledge and experience. Let me know if you need anything

The company I worked for collected council tax and road traffic fines for councils. There were a few other debts too such as housing benefit overpayment. I will have a look over the at the bailiff forum too. thank

I haven't informed anybody yet, I want to do this properly, otherwise they will just get away with it. They know people in the right places too (the ESA for example). The 'funny' thing about this is everybody knows they are adding on these fees, the owners, the managers/team leaders and other members of staff but because they seem to have built up this image of debtors being the worst people in the world, the staff just think they deserve it and back up the company. I know they are still doing it now as well. I don't know if there are incentives further up the chain (it wouldn't surprise me if managers/supervisors get extra to keep their mouths shut) but there were no incentives at all for the general members of staff who take the calls and send out letters etc. There are other fees added on too, these are legal but extortionate and the councils have the power to remove them but most of them are not aware of them. There is one fee that always baffled me called the 'section 5 head h fee' I think, they described it as a fee 'to put the goods back in the ownership of the debtor after the debt is paid'. Anyone else heard of that one? Anything else you need to know?

Hi Babybear, What the company does is add 'visit fees' on to unpaid road traffic fines when a bailiff hasn't even been allocated to the debt. Occasionally people call up with legitimate reasons why it was impossible that a bailiff could have seen the car (sold it or was in the garage etc) and they just apologise and say it was a mistake and the fees were added by accident. These fees aren't small either, I remember one lady calling asking why 130 pounds was added to a debt when the car wasn't even at her address and no bailiff had called. Basically the company are adding on fees and hoping people don't question it. They must have made thousands just from doing that.

Hello again all, I really only started this thread to find out if there was a way to stop these people basically stealing money by adding illegal fees but if I can help anyone in any way then that is even better. I shall be here to answer any questions anybody has. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Greetings all, Firstly I will give a brief explanation of my past....I am an ex-employee of a debt collection / bailiff company who work on behalf of many local authorities / councils. I left this business due to the sickening actions of these rich money grabbing people. There are so many things I could say but again I will keep it brief. The owners of the business I worked for were adding 'illegal' fees to many accounts and then giving permission to their staff to remove these fees 'if debtors complain about them'. Many debtors received letters saying they had to increase their payments (on the instruction of local councils) or suffer enforcement action but in truth the councils knew nothing about this at all. As well as this, bailiffs were instructed to leave letters saying that debtors would be made bankrupt if they didn't make payments. I spoke to the CAB who advised me that this is not possible as their debts were usually only in the hundreds of pounds. There are so many other issues I could go into but I fear this message would continue for far too long. My main issue is the illegal fees, surely the owners could suffer severe action for this? I don't want go go into names but if there are any trustworthy people out there who believe in this cause as well then I would love to help out, as I feel it is so very unfair to those who are suffering and struggling to make small payments when the owners are making so much from them.