JBW Employee-took payment but failed to record it.

[Impey]

A friend of mine has been in tears over the actions of JBW. She incurred a local authority parking fine (or several) and did nothing about it. Eventually JBW got involved and called on her adding the usual fees and levies. She ended up paying the bailiff £450 in cash.Team edit-For clarification there remains no evidence that the management of JBW were aware of this,nor did they sanction or have knowledge of it at this time.

 

 

 

So far so straightforwrd. Except about two months later another JBW bailiff turned up demanding over £500, clamping her car in the process. She pointed out she had paid it (same reference no. and everything) but couldn't find the receipt at that time. The bailiff returned to the office then returned to her home saying that, whilst they had a record of the earlier bailiff calling in to say he had visited her to collect the debt, he had now left the employ of JBW and they had no record of him having paid the money in. The second bailiff decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, removed the clamp and issued a further notice giving her 7 days to come up with a receipt.

 

Team edit-again there is no evidence that JBW had knowledge of the alleged earlier payments being made,not sanctioned the alleged actions.

 

 

 

Thankfully - and after a whole wasted day turning her house upside-down - she managed to locate the receipt and a scanned copy is on its way to JBW with an appropriate letter of complaint. (She isn't letting the original out of her sight!)

 

It seems clear that the first bailiff hs simply pocketed the money from his call and not paid it in. My view is that she shouldn't be held responsible for theft on the part of JBW's employee and that the burden of proof ought to lie with JBW to show that she didn't pay the money rather than the other way round. (Though the point is academic since she found the receipt).

 

Also the actions of JBW in all this wasted a whole day, her car was clamped for several hours and she tells me that she spent most of the day crying her eyes out and was even physiclly sick with worry at one point.

 

I've suggested she might have a case to seek some sort of compensation since their failures clearly caused her considerble distress - or am I just being wildly optimistic?

Edited May 5, 2009 by MARTIN3030

[Impey]

Its not the fault of the bailiff company it wasnt kept safe and a whole day was wasted searching for it.

 

Well yes and no - if the bailiff company had kept their own proper records and checked they would surely have noticed that whilst the original bailiff had phoned in and said he'd collected the money the cash hadn't been paid in. She'd paid the money and wasted a day not because of where she kept the receipt but because the bailiff company made a second and unwarranted effort to collect money that was not due.

 

And the problem wasn't that the receipt wasn't safe - it was too safe! I've spent hours waiting on her doorstep over the years while she looks for stuff she put "in a safe place" before we go out!

[Impey]

Download a form4 complaint form, and make an official complaint against the original bailiff. Write to JBW ask them to supply the name of the original bailiff, and then you can make a complaint against this person. If you do not have his name and they cant/wont give it to you. Then you are asked to name the company on the form anyway, so just state that the company have refused to release the name of the attending bailiff and they will write to them asking them to provide this information. ALso, ask them for a copy of their screen shots on you. Send a SAR request, and they will have to provide you with any information they hold on you. I would not put it past them to try to obtain the money from you twice!

 

Thanks for that K1mmie. I suspect she will just want to forget about the whole thing - it's just me that hates seeing people turned over!

[Impey]

Sorry guys but in the absence of some real proof of these allegations,this thread will have to be moderated.

This is in keeping within the general policy and posting guidelines,irrespective of who the individuals or organisation is.

Thanks for your understanding.

TT the suggestion at the end of your post is not really a good idea and so edit there as well.

 

Just to clarify a few points:

 

The suggestion that the bailiff collected the money but failed to pay it in came from JBW themselves. As far as C was concerned it might have just been some admin mess-up. C called them to sort things out and was told that they had a record of her having given money to the bailiff but they could not trace it having been received by JBW. It is also significant that the second bailiff mentioned that the first was "no longer with the company" and suggested there had been other problems with his work.

 

My whole problem with this is not whether or not JBW's employee misappropriated funds paid to him (if he did that's their problem) but the fact that JBW had sufficient information to suggest payment had been made but still clamped the car and would still have been willing to try to enforce the debt even though it had been paid.

 

Funny I don't get this annoyed when people try to stitch me up but when someone tries to mess about with my chums it's a different mtter!

[Impey]

Thanks for all the advice - I thought you might like to know how this has ended up.

 

C faxed a copy of the receipt to JBW who - and fair play to them - have now apologised unreservedly. She has been credited with the original amount she paid over and they will be writing to her with full details of her account and full written confirmation that all is now ok.

 

JBW have told C that the original bailiff has been arrested and I don't want to go into too much detail but the advice C wants to give everyone is that if you pay a bailiff cash and he provides a hand-written receipt, make sure that your copy and the copy he takes with him match. Above all, if he has some thick paper or card between the two copies alarm bells ought to start ringing!

 

Oh and I scored brownie points for being the supportive male as well!

[Impey]

C has written a letter to JBW setting out precisely what happened and requesting full details of what her account shows. I'm supposed to be going over there this evening to have a look before she sends it on and I'll make sure whichever local authority iissued the original ticket is copied in on everything just so she doesn't get clobbered again.

 

I guess that a "rogue employee" could happen to anyone!

[Impey]

There's been a further update on this one. Somewhere somebody has failed to push a button and some more bailiffs visited C's place to collect the difference between what she paid and what they said they'd paid. It's now happened three times since they originally apologised. It's caused her no end of problems in that she ended up having a major argument with her other half and they've split up.

 

I've filled out the relevant form of complaint to the county court and written letters to both the company and the Borough concerned and, at least on the phone, the company has promised no further action.

 

I think she has a case for some form of redress over this. However, having little experience in this area I wouldn't have a clue as to how much, if anything the court would be likely to award.

 

Any suggestions?