Rumour or What? Are Baliffs Operating In Tesco or Other Supermarket Car Parks

[Feebop]

Hi, has anybody heard anything to the effect that Tesco is letting bailiffs onto their car parks to confiscate any cars of anyone in default of a cc judgement.

 

I picked this up on facebook (ok, ok not the best but no smoke without fire) as far as I can make out this has recently been happening in London area but no idea if its going on everywhere Tesco.

 

I asked a couple of questions to see if it was other things such as maybe criminal things rather than civil defaulters cars but it seems any defaulter of a civil cc judgement whose car is spotted by bailiffs in a supermarket car park is towed or clamped, I only saw Tesco mentioned but it could be all of them for all I know.

 

Personal thoughts are that IF its true it might also be illegal unless Tesco put notices up the cc bailiffs were active in their car parks as surely that would be entrapment, I know warrants are for 2 things, the defaulters name & their property, they have no warrants to go on other private property such as a private supermarket car par park

[seanamarts]

Can you pm me with a link to the FB page please

[Feebop]

I dont have it (link) i was just browsing at the time & moved on i never book marked

[seanamarts]

ok will scout about

[ploddertom]

Private Bailiffs have nothing to do with CCJ's. It's more likely to be for Parking Tickets etc.

 

PT

[Feebop]

Sorry, I must not have written that very well (private baliffs & CCJ's). When I said private baliffs I mean baliffs with a warrant from CIVIL court, I know there are criminal court baliffs who have different powers, so I did mean baliffs with CCJ's, it seems a bit odd that Tesco or others would give permission to baliffs to check & confiscate their customers cars, I mean a lot of people are in debt this past couple of years.

 

I defaulted on a credit card around 15 months ago, they did get a CCJ but I have been paying it off steadily now for over a year, but to go shoping at the time and find baliffs had towed my car from a private shop car park with the shops consent seems to be stretching the law and customer relations a bit to me UNLESS Tesco had notices up stateing the situation, it just sounds like joint entrapment by collusion, wish I had found out more now its been bugging me all day.

[ploddertom]

The only Bailiff that can enforce a CCJ is the County Court Bailiff himself and I doubt very much he would do this as he gets paid a salary regardless of what he does or doesn't do. CCJ's can be transferred up through the High Court if they are for more than £600 inc costs but I still can't see this happening. I would put this down to rumour mongers.

 

PT

[Feebop]

Looking at that reply I think I don't understand the baliff thing properly. This is what I though, all these private firms which are hired in by companies who are owed money I thought had trained people & when I CCJ was issued it was given to one of their emplyees who then became a court authorised baliff for the specific cases they dealt with, are they actually emplyed by the courts themselves? Im lost on the fine details really.

[brassnecked]

No a debt collector is a debt collector, and cannot become a bailiff unless certificated by a magistrates court. If a debt collector passed himself off as a bailiff he would be in the doo doo.

[Feebop]

Im more confused now, when I had my default problems I got a letter from a baliff company saying they had a warrant from court, county court, & wanted the money or they could confiscate my goods or chattels, are those debt collectors? I thought because it was a certifiied baliff company the people they sent round were baliffs with a court warrant, am I wrong on that?

[josephbloggs]

Bailiffs have the use of anpr vans with the respect of parking fines, expect them to go around public car parks searching for cars. Tesco, or any other supermarket are private property. Bailiffs can only go onto these car parks with permission, it is quite possible tesco have given permission to the council for this purpose, maybe thats why bailiffs are searching tescos car park?

[brassnecked]

Im more confused now, when I had my default problems I got a letter from a baliff company saying they had a warrant from court, county court, & wanted the money or they could confiscate my goods or chattels, are those debt collectors? I thought because it was a certifiied baliff company the people they sent round were baliffs with a court warrant, am I wrong on that?

 

In that circumstances they would be bailiffs as they cannot send a debt collector to levy distress

[ploddertom]

If you get a CCJ you get a variety of options with it. If you offered a payment proposal you may be able to pay by instalments otherwise you may have what is called a Forthwith Judgment where the monies are due immediately. In either case if you fail to pay then the Claimant may decide to take further action, this can take several forms but for now we'll go with 2 of these.

 

Warrant of Execution

The Claimant goes back to Court pays £100 and asks the County Court Bailiff to attend to collect the monies owed, levy distress on the goods of the debtor or remove those goods for sale at public auction. The County Court Bailiff is an employee of the Courts Service and is paid regardless of results. He is a more amenable animal than the common or garden Bailiff.

 

Writ of Fieri Facias (Fi Fa)

This is where the debt is for more than £600 and the Claimant applies to transfer the debt through the High Court for enforcement. These are dealt with by private companies and the sums charged are more akin to numbers in the phone directory.

 

If in the past you have had a run in with someone over your debts for say something on HP it usually goes to Debt Collectors first who will usually write & tell you they may obtain a CCJ, they may seek to have their goods back, they may get a Bailiff to call.. Remember the words that are written - might, may, possibly etc. There are some companies that operate as Debt Collectors & Bailiffs and when they write the emphasis on the headed paper may promote Bailiff first - Phillips spring to mind as being guilty of this.

 

PT

[welsh1]

Bailiffs have the use of anpr vans with the respect of parking fines, expect them to go around public car parks searching for cars. Tesco, or any other supermarket are private property. Bailiffs can only go onto these car parks with permission, it is quite possible tesco have given permission to the council for this purpose, maybe thats why bailiffs are searching tescos car park?

 

If i am right supermarket carparks are deemed as public places,as the public have access to them,that is why the police can issue tickets to people in their cars mucking about at night.

[ploddertom]

Bailiffs have the use of anpr vans with the respect of parking fines, expect them to go around public car parks searching for cars. Tesco, or any other supermarket are private property. Bailiffs can only go onto these car parks with permission, it is quite possible tesco have given permission to the council for this purpose, maybe thats why bailiffs are searching tescos car park?

 

Of course there is nothing to stop them driving around the car park on the pretext of buying lunch and looking for somewhere to park. They then just happen to collate a list of cars with outstanding tickets and await their owner turning up and following them. Don't forget a lot of the car parks are not owned by Tesco or the like - in how many of these do you have to buy a Council parking ticket!

 

PT

[Feebop]

OK Joeblogs that makes things clearer except you seem to specify only parking fines. I though what they meant last night was any general civil CCJ debt warrant of execution, I mean they can take any goods including cars so would't they have anpr vans (are those the tones which tow cars away? I dont know what "anpr" vans are) anyway?

[Feebop]

They then just happen to collate a list of cars with outstanding tickets and await their owner turning up and following them.

 

No what the story is is that they are going into tesco & probably others I suppose & just clamping or putting them on the back of those lorries as well as towing them off

[josephbloggs]

OK Joeblogs that makes things clearer except you seem to specify only parking fines. I though what they meant last night was any general civil CCJ debt warrant of execution, I mean they can take any goods including cars so would't they have anpr vans (are those the tones which tow cars away? I dont know what "anpr" vans are) anyway?

 

Anpr is automated number plate recognision. Its similar to the ones in police cars, only bailiffs wont get up on screen whether the cars taxed/insured. In fact the only info bailiffs are entitled to relates to whether the vehicle the fine relates to is still registered to the person who was the registered keeper at the date of the offense. (slightly off topic here but bailiffs are not entitled to contact the dvla for anything other than that yes or no answer for penalty charge notices for data protection reasons, so if you read a thread that says a bailiff has to check the vehicle is registered to a debtor before taking for council tax debts, that is not the case because the dvla will not release that sort of info)

[Feebop]

Yes those things are helpfull JB, they seem to conflict with what was being assumed last night which was a "so & so saw this happeing" & passed the info on by just ordinary chat, who also passed it on, that sort of thing but as I said theres no smoke without fire so theres some sort of truth it it somewhere & probably a lot of guesswork as well, what I was surprised about is that Tesco would allow them in I mean theres a lot of people in debt & for Tesco or any others suddenly & without putting notices up becoming a 'honey trap' for baliffs against its customers that just does not make sense.

 

but bailiffs are not entitled to contact the dvla for anything other than that yes or no answer for penalty charge notices for data protection reasons

 

I remeber there was a lot of media controvesy a few years ago (5-10) about DVLA giviing out personal information about drivers (probably meant licence holders) registered with them, dont think it was to do with baliffs or anything like that I seem to remember it was about giving out info to commercial firms involved in selling stuff to motorists, I think, that could be wrong but they were accused of giving out private info.

[Feebop]

JB - so if you read a thread that says a bailiff has to check the vehicle is registered to a debtor before taking for council tax debts, that is not the case because the dvla will not release that sort of info)

 

Yes it did seem to mean that, what I understood was that they must have come into a Tesco car park & checked out the cars number & it came back as the owner owed money under a CCJ for something or other, I assumed a debt for anything.

[tomtubby]

It is common for bailiffs to have the use of an ANPR equipped vehicle to enforce unpaid parking tickets.

 

How they work is pretty simple in that the bailiff is given a memory stick with details of warrants and the information will provide the name and address of the debtor, details of the PCN and the VRM (Vehicle registration mark).

 

The memory stick will be put into the onboard computer and the bailiff simply drives around the streets of London and when the ANPR vehicle passes a car with the same registration number as that on a warrant, an alarm will sound on the computer.

 

Bailiff routinely find it very lucrative indeed to merely drive around large shopping centres such as Blue Water, Brent X etc and large supermarkets to identify vehicles. Many supermarkets etc will allow the bailiff onto their private land as they are unaware that they can refuse. HOWEVER, only a few days ago I heard of a one large shopping centre who REFUSED to allow the ANPR vehicle onto the PRIVATE LAND.

 

It may be that Tesco are unaware of their rights.

[ploddertom]

 

It may be that Tesco are unaware of their rights.

 

Let's see what they say in reply to an email then.

 

PT

[Feebop]

Let's see what they say in reply to an email then.

 

PT

 

Have you emailed them? I was thinking of doing that but I seem muddled as to what I understood as my next post below might show.

[ploddertom]

sent 15 minutes ago.

 

PT

[Feebop]

OK - Now, from what I have read in many posts I am now understanding that they are really specificaly looking or/computer held CAR ONLY parking fines & NOT other CCJ desbts (child maintance-credit debt-whatever) because they cannot simply scan a car number plate & get the name of someone with a CCJ against them for credit card debt or some other debt.

 

I had thought they simply had lists of names & addresses & scanned car number plates to see if any CCJ respondents came up as owners of any particuler car...so now I understand this just a car fine thing, is that correct?