Hi all, thanks in advance for reading and any advice. I'll try to be as concise as possible. I have an iPhone provided by my work. It states on the iPhone Policy that if you lose the phone or it is stolen, you will have the price of the iPhone taken off the next payslip. The only exception is if you can provide a police certificate that it was stolen, but there is a sub-exception here that states you still have to pay if the theft was facilitated to clear negligence on your part, e.g. leaving it unsupervised in a public place. In November 2015 there was a fire drill at work. I immediately left the building. When the drill ended and I returned to my office, my work phone had been stolen off my desk. When I informed Asset Management of the theft, the person at the desk seemed understanding and stated verbally that this should be OK and I shouldn't be charged as when there is a fire drill, you must leave immediately and not stop to pick up personal belongings. I was provided with a new work phone a few days later and there were no other comments made by them. Come end of November, I have £300 taken off my payslip for the cost of a new iPhone 5. Before even considering whether they can do this, the price is not right. They currently retail on Amazon at £251, and I strongly suspect my employer gets them at a far lower price seeing as they order hundreds for their employees. So they are making a profit on this. By email, I questioned the deduction (and the price). In their email reply, they didn't dispute my story but said I was negligent as I should have taken the phone with me. I pointed to the fire regulations, which state, word for word: "...evacuate the building immediately and do not stop for any personal belongings. Delaying the evacuation to gather personal belongings risks the lives of you and your colleagues and may constitute gross misconduct." Their reply to this was that it was "obvious" that small items like your phone don't count in this rule, as your phone will be sitting on your desk (where we have a dedicated power cable for our phones) and so you will lose no time in picking it up. And they said making a police report for theft is pointless as it was now "too long ago" and in any case I was negligent (see 1st para.). I also raised the fact that there is CCTV - not in my office, but in the hall adjoining it. I.e. my office door is in clear view of the camera, so can see everyone who enters or leaves the office. This is the only door to the office. Even if the phone isn't recovered, I told them they can at least find out who stole it, on a matter of principle/ethics. They replied "data protection" and were extremely obstructive. What's the point of CCTV in this location if not to stop things being stolen from the premises or find the people who do steal? I issued a written reply by recorded delivery, challenging the deduction by quoting the fire regulations and stating that no exceptions are listed. I received no reply. I waited for my December payslip and there was no £300 refund. Where do I stand here? I was simply following the fire regulations. I am not in a trade union. Would CAB be a good start? Could I also claim interest on the money they are withholding from me? I have been careful not to mention legal threats as I know most people who say this never act on it. I am now at the stage where I would be happy to leave/lose my job to fight this. Threatening with going to the press would be futile as they are a very large company that has had a few controversies in the past and couldn't care less about negative coverage. Even if I can't get a refund on the facts, can I challenge the amount that they deducted as it is considerably more than the retail value of the phone? Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post!

Hello I had a dartford crossing penalty charge that I never paid as was in & out of my property due to domestic violence issues. Equita now have the debt. On the 7/2/2017 they gave me an enforcement notice after only having my debt since 27/1/2017, the notice stated I had until 17:30pm on the 7/2/2017 to talk to them before a bailiff was sent to my house. I was not at my property to recieve this letter to meet their deadline so it went unnoticed. I called equita as soon as I returned home to explain my situation & they just said it's in the hands of their enforcement officer now so deal with him. What a monster this man is!! He has told me I am to pay him £50 a week or the full debt, I'm on ESA & currently awaiting a decision on my pip award, I told him I don't even have £50 a month but could do £20 a month at a push. He refused & said he will return to my property with the police to take my goods this was on the 18/2/2017 On the 20/2/2017 he came to my property but I was not home. He then sent me this text: Due to your failure to pay a Bailiff, under the instructions of Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service has attended your premises with the intention of taking control of goods and removing your goods. The Magistrates Distress Warrant empowers the high court enforcement agent , by virtue of Schedule 4A of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, to enter your premises by force should you wilfully refuse to pay the outstanding fine and costs. To prevent the removal of your goods and the expensive additional removal costs you must make immediate payment. Failure to do so will result in the re-attendance of your premises with Locksmiths and the Police to remove your goods even in your absence. NO FURTHER NOTICE WILL BE ISSUED. Is he just being a bully or can he really get a locksmith to drill out my locks while I'm out over a dart charge penalty? I thought it was only council tax, HM revenue tax debt or criminal fines they could do this. I have a debt relief order coming into place in about 10weeks which this debt is included in but until this locks in I'm stuck with it. What am I supposed to do about this bully?