Bailiff notice for unknown person

[Fredsie]

A few months ago a I received a fixed penalty notice for a public order offence addressed to someone who does not and who never has lived at my address, and is not known to me.

 

I complained to the issuing court and they asked me to return the notice with conformation that the person was "not known at this address" or words to that effect, which I did.

 

Two weeks later I received a further notice af arrears, so I lodged a formal complaint with the court administration. This resulted in a letter from them saying they were sorry, were making further intelligence enquiries relating to the location of the person, and that they should have put a stop on the account at the previous letter, but failed to do so. They said this had now been done.

 

Today, two weeks later, I received a 7 day notice of distrant from a firm of bailiffs.

 

Any ideas what I should do now?

[tomtubby]

IMMEDIATELY send a LETTER by registered post to include what you have previously sent to the court and asking for confirmation that they have safely received your letter and that no further action wil be taken.

[Fredsie]

IMMEDIATELY send a LETTER by registered post to include what you have previously sent to the court and asking for confirmation that they have safely received your letter and that no further action wil be taken.

 

OK, thanks, will do that now.

 

I suspect though that they'll still turn up at the door. What do I say? What are my rights? Should I go back to the court again?

 

Seems to me this must be quite common as anyone could give a random false address. But I couldn't find something similar searching the forum.

Edited February 28, 2009 by Fredsie

[Fredsie]

Just as a follow up to this - I managed to get the dogs called off after convincing the local court office that the person they were looking for had never been at my address. They took a long time to sort this out though - they kept saying they had suspended action, but the bailiffs claimed not to know about this suspension. Eventually I made a formal complaint against the court administration - this did the trick!

 

I later found that there is another street in Liverpool with the same street name as mine, and a person with the specified name was listed at that address. I suspect what happened is that the person actually did give his correct address but without a postcode. The court (or the police) then later looked up and added the postcode, but picked the wrong one. Great.