urgent help please RE Drakes & Court Fines

[I_feel_cheated]

Hi,

 

Did something rather daft and ended up with a fine of £443 which I agreed to pay £80 per month.

 

Fell behind with payments due to me loosing my job.

 

Letter received today from Drakes, who want the payment within 7 days and have added £88.60

 

If they don't get the money the letter says that they will attend to levy distress and thereafter remove goods and this action will involve a £175.00

 

my circumstances

 

unemployed in receipt of benefit (jobseekers allowance)

suffering from hardship.

living with parent

no car and nothing else of value to pay the debt.

no children

 

ideally I would like to get the dept passed back to the courts, and then for the courts to take £10 - £15 per month directly out of my benefit.

 

where do I stand and whats the first thing I need to do.

 

thanks

[I_feel_cheated]

I phoned Drakes and they were very unhelpfull, but I made it clear that I am not refusing to pay. I will send a recorded letter out tomorrow, however any advice in what to say in the letter would be great peeps, really concerned about this one. I've heard horrible stories about Drakes aned the lady I spoke to was very rude and put the phone down on me when I said I would like them to return the debt to the courts

[tomtubby]

First DO NOT rely on telephone calls. You MUST write a letter.

 

We have a letter on our website for exactly this purpose. Sadly, we are not allow to put details on here.

 

If you send me a pm to remind me, I will send a copy over to you later today.

 

Finally, you cannot have this debt deducted from your benefits. This is because the legislation ONLY provides that deductions can be made from Income Support NOT Jobseekers.

[I_feel_cheated]

hi there,

 

my brother had to phone Croydon Court today and they just happen to notice there is a warrant of distress out for my arresst. I phoned the courts spoke to a helpfull lady who advised me to phone drakes and advise them to pass the debt back to courts as I am now on jobseekers allowance, however as I previously stated on here I want to address the matter in writing, can someone help with me a template, I need to get this sorted asap, if no one can provide a template can you tell if the following letter would be good. will post shortly.

 

Thanks

[I_feel_cheated]

this is my following draft.

 

I understand Croydon Court has appointed you to recover my Unpaid fine.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay this in one payment. I advocate a payment schedule of £20 pcm for xxx. I understand this may seem a long time but this is a realistic offer that is affordable, I have lost my job and am now in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance. A greater amount would cause me real and actual hardship.

 

It should be noted that I am not at any point refusing to pay this debt but only asking for a fair payment period considering my circumstances.

 

I have taken advice from CAB and Croydon court who have advised me to request you pass the debt back to Croydon Court, due to my personal circumstances and suffering from finicial hardship.

Please also send an itemised statement of account that clearly shows what charges have been added and what for, you are required in statute to supply this information and I look forward to this within 14 days.

 

I am sending the Croydon court a copy of this letter and requesting that it be filled with my account for further reference.

 

I hope the above meets your approval and I look forward to your timely reply by letter.

 

Yours faithfully,

[I_feel_cheated]

is there anyone who can help

[tomtubby]

I have sent you a private message with the password to download a template letter from our website. There is of course no fee chargeable.

[steg]

I am in a similar situation to this, is there any way I can get a copy of that template letter too?

[tomtubby]

Steg,

 

The problem that you may have however is that there is no provision within law for deductions to be made from Jobseekers Allowance ONLY from Income Support,

 

Can you provide more details...

[steg]

I have a magistrates court fine from Oct 2006 - after making a few payments in person, I set up a standing order as I was moving and would no longer be able to visit the court. The SO didnt stick for whatever reason, and I never check my bank statements so I didnt notice. Any letters they sent to say I was in arrears would have gone to my last address.

 

In Jan I started to get letters from Drakes saying I now owed £450 blah blah blah. I tried to come up with a payent schedule of £40 a week, the guy refused to accept this, but gave me a couple of weeks to come up with the money. I couldnt get it together, so the visits started, as well as phone calls and threatening text messages (?!). We were surviving on one income throughout this time, then in March, my partner managed to get a job and I thought we could finally start to climb out of the financial mess we were in. However at the start of April I was laid off and I am now on JSA till I get another job. I really have no chance of even making a dent into the money owed to Drakes so I have taken to just ignoring the issue until my situation changes. But I really need to do something, as last wednesday, the bailiff got entry into our block of flats through another resident, got our landlords number off that resident, called the landlord to get my girlfriends number and has now started calling her and hassling her.

 

I dont know what to do.

[tomtubby]

last wednesday, the bailiff got entry into our block of flats through another resident, got our landlords number off that resident, called the landlord to get my girlfriends number and has now started calling her and hassling her.

 

You would have valid grounds for a serious complaint against this bailiff.

 

I would suggest that you contact the court where this fine was set and ask for the date of the warrant as the bailiff cannot enforce this if it is over 180 days old. You should also mention to the court about this bailiff and ask if you can attend the court to request that this fine is varied.

 

Can you send me a private message with the name of the actual bailiff and I will check to see whether or not he is certificated.

 

I am sending you a template letter from our bailiff advice website.

[I_feel_cheated]

Hi everyone,

thanks tomtubby for the access code

 

sent that off to them with proof of JSA and also a letter which came with my most recent payment to prove I was still in receipt of JSA.

 

They sent a letter back saying that they were unable to comment on the points I had raised. They then went on to say that they would not put the matter on hold and that if payment was not made in full a bailiff would attend which would incur extra costs.

 

I have stopped claiming JSA but am not working, so I'm off the radar so to speak.

 

I could start signing on. My mother has agreed to pay this off for me but can only afford £150 a month.

 

My question to you is, do you think I can negociate with them a deal, for the above £150 a month, or shall I go and to this declaration thing at the court tomorrow, where I swear about the income and promise to pay.

 

Any advice would be good. I'm nervous because although we have great security, high walls, porch doors, triple glazing, my mother is very gulluble.

 

thanks

[I_feel_cheated]

I have briefed my mother tonight and she's stepped up security, good old mum eh

[kermit2482]

If the bailiff was reasonable he/she would accept £5 per week, this is exactly what i would do and you could even have an unsecured arrangement, so long as you stuck to that then no problems, perhaps you could suggest this to the bailiffs, this is the way i deal with people on income support or JSA and to be fair they generally pay as i have been reasonable with them.

[I_feel_cheated]

just checked and I've been charged two lots of £175, as it was two separate fines. But they delivered the letter's at the same time so surely I don't have to pay £175 on both occasions.

[kermit2482]

This is obsurd, if the letters were delivered at the same time then even at van call stage cost of £150 mamimum you can only legally charge one van call on one case as THEY have not turned up with 2 vans, if on the other hand 2 vans turn up then a van call can be charged for both cases, however this is MOST UNLIKELY, fill in form 4 which im sure Wwow will be along shortly to help you with.

[tomtubby]

I would argue that the visit fees are wrong as this company carry out a warrant check BEFORE making a visit to ensure that they enforce all warrants at the same visit. Only one visit fee should be charged.

 

The contract that they have with HMCS provides that the debt is paid within a very short time scale and therefore £5 per week will NOT be agreed.

 

There are seperate people within HMCS dealing with complaints and I would be tempted to send an immediate e-mail to the bailiff company to advise them of your circumstances again and stating that you will consider a formal complaint to HMCS until your letter is correctly addressed.

 

If you require details please pm me.

[I_feel_cheated]

Hi tomtubby,

 

I will send an e-mail to them, but to be honest I will only raise the point about my circumstances, the fact that they are charging me twice, I will play that hand later and use it more effectively to my advantage, if they want to play dirty bring it on. thanks for confirming that. anyway hopefully I'll speak to you tomorrow on your helpline.

 

thanks again for all your time and help.

[I_feel_cheated]

here is a full copy of the letter I received - obviously a standard letter just printed off - I doubt my letter was even fully read.

 

Dear Mr XXXX

 

Thank you for your recent letter.

 

You will appreciate we are instructed to enforce distress warrant (s) immediately and in full. Any circumstrances relating to the the offence or contgravention are beyond our jurisdiction and we are unable to comment on the points you have raised.

 

We regret therefore, we are unable to put this matter on hold or refrain from enforcing the warrant unless otherwise instructed by the Magistrate Court or the Local Authority.

 

We would therefore advise full payment be made by return of post, failure to comply will result in a bailiff attending your premises, which will incur further costs and your goods may be at risk.

 

NO FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE WILL BE ENTERED INTO.

 

what a nice bunch of people eh.