For at least six years an individual (known to many on here) has posted on various websites (including this one) claims that debtors are not liable to pay bailiff/enforcement agent fees when enforcing unpaid Magistrate Court FINES. Furthermore, since 2007 that individual would advise debtors to pay the amount of the fine only in CASH into the ATM 'Drop Box' in the Magistrate Court foyer in the mistaken belief that the distress warrant would be 'expunged' or 'revoked'. In 2012 the individual took over a small 'advice forum' and since that time he has continued to provide the above 'advice' and in cases where a debtor had paid bailiff fees, the individual would (for a fee) offer to draft a claim form against the Ministry of Justice and that 'supposedly' refunds were made. It is noteworthy that to date (and despite many requests) the website has failed to provide any evidence whatsoever of a successful claim. The same 'advise' as above also features on almost all websites with connections to the Freeman on the Land movement. On 6th April the new regulations took effect and it is of serious concern that the individual is continuing to mislead debtors into believing that the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 do not provide for debtors to be charged a fee when enforcing an unpaid magistrate court fine. In other words...they wrongly consider that the government are continuing to provide a free collection service to debtors with unpaid court fines !!! For the avoidance of doubt, the new regulations (and fees) apply to the enforcement of unpaid council tax, unpaid PCN's and of course......unpaid court fines).

On 6th April new regulations took effect regarding the enforcement industry and thankfully, a "Form 4 Complaint" is now no longer applicable and the new regulations regarding 'complaints' now make the position CLEAR in that a Judge may indeed impose COSTS against the person making the complaint in cases where the complaint had no justification. It is sadly a FACT that in the past year a lot of Form 4 Complaints have been issued and so many of these have been found to have no merit at all with many complainants finding themselves being ordered to pay the bailiffs costs. Worryingly, many times the amounts in question are substantial. This forum and many others are all too aware of the existence of two websites which actively encourage debtors to pursue a 'Form 4' Complaint and furthermore, those same websites advertise that they will go one step further and will even draft the Form 4 Complaint for the complainant. Naturally there is a fee involved ....of £99. The same two websites openly stated last year that they had even 'sold' over 1,100 'Form 4 'Packs' (for a fee of approx £15 each). Given that there are just 1,300 bailiffs with a current certificate it is clear that these sites could very likely be responsible for the majority of Form 4 Complaints. It is important to make clear to anyone reading this thread that the websites in question have never ever published details of ONE CASE yet where a complainant was successful with a 'Form 4 Complaint'. Today, we have received notification of yet ANOTHER debtor who had lost a Form 4 Complaint and she too has been ordered to pay the BAILIFFS COST of £3,000 !!! To ensure that other debtors do not pursue such worthless complaints I will of course publish a copy of the order as soon as details arrive (hopefully later today).