I hope you're right. Looks like i'm going to court then. I've never done this before, what goes on in court, do i need to take anything with me and what can i do to fool them into thinking i'm not a blithering idiot?

Hello all, I received a summons today for non payment of council tax. It's not because i haven't been paying, but they say i have paid on the wrong date. Even though my bill says i have to pay 9 installments between 1/4/09 to 1/1/10. It doesn't say i have to pay on thr 1st of every month, it just says i must pay 9 times between those dates doesn't it? Thats the way i understood it anyway. To be fair, i am almost a whole £10 in arrears, but i have been paying the same way for the last 5 years because i am paid every 4 weeks instead of monthly so it is more convinient for me to pay my bills when i get paid. In all that time i've not had this problem before. Whats changed? For the rest of the year i owe around £300 and i'm woried that if i don't attend court, they will simply take the full amount out of my wages when i am next paid (which i just can't afford). I spoke to a very uninterested woman on the phone to try to resolve this by paying by direct debit but i get paid 1 day before the court date so they were unwilling to wait an extra day for my money. Is it worth going to court or will the magistrate simply side with the council?