Notice of distress warrant

[richardsun]

hi

 

i have just received a letter in the post from collectica demanding i pay £354.10 by 14 days.

 

It was for a unpaid train fine.

 

I believe they are referring to an incident that happened one year ago

where i was travelling into london without a ticket as i was running late and boarded the train without one.

 

I didnt think this would be a problem because the station i was travelling is a main one with guys at the gates with ticket machines.

 

Plus i had over £60 cash on me, so i could pay for the ticket there.

 

A ticket inspector told me i couldnt do this and asked for my details so he could send me the £20 fine.

 

I refused to pay the fine because i obviously wasn't trying to skip the train,

having plenty of money on me and exiting a main station.

 

But i gave him my address details and he said i could be sent to court.

 

This was one year ago.

 

Today i was sent this letter.

 

I have not received any letters up until now.

 

I do not have the money to pay for this.

 

What are my options?

[richardsun]

by the way i am new to this forum so i am not sure if i have posted this in the right section

[mikeymack2002]

Hi and welcome to CAG if you did no kow about he court case then ask your local court to make what is known as a Statutory Declaration, this resets the clock then you go back to court the case is re heard and then you can put in a defence but however if it is found that you knew of the case there are serious consequences involved.

 

MM

[maroondevo52]

Hi richardsun,

 

I have moved this thread to a more appropriate Forum.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[dx100uk]

if you have a read of a few threads in this transport forum you are now in:

Public transport (Trains, tubes and buses)

you'll see that, sadly, you did break the bylaws of train travel.

 

you 'should' have sought a conductor on board before you arrived at your destination to get a ticket.

 

looking at what typically happens, lets say if this hadn't gone to court

and you'd responded to the letter [that you did not get]

it would probably end up at about the same sum.

 

now your real issue here might be if you now have a criminal conviction against you?

 

it might be an idea to phone the court and enquire what the judgement was

& if you have a criminal conviction too.

 

if its just they gave you a fine in court

-then personally i'd pay the sum owed to the court there and then

or ask for a redetermination form or a variation form as you cant afford this in one 'go'

 

if it transpires you do have a criminal conviction, then yes i'd be doing the

statutory declaration and get things reset.

 

think that right.

 

dx

[Stigy]

Hi,

 

I'm going to assume that this company is acting on behalf of the Court to collect an unpaid court fine, judging by what you've said and the terminology used.

 

It's amazing the amount of posters who come here and say something like

"Obviously I wasn't trying to avoid paying my fare, as I had plenty of money on me at the time…".

 

That's all well and good, but if the ticket barriers were open and you weren't challenged?

C'mon, you're only human after all.

 

Regardless, you don't have to be avoiding your fare to be dealt with in this way,

in fact,

you were issued a Penalty Fare Notice,

which is intended for situations such as these,

where the staff believed it was a one off offence with no intent to avoid payment being evident.

 

A deterrent against fare evasion if you like.

 

If they believed you intended to avoid payment,

they would,

or at least should have cut out the idle man so to speak,

and report you straight to their prosecutions dept.

 

Anyway, all that said, that doesn't answer your question.

 

Not sure why you wouldn't have known about this before now, unless you have moved address?

If you didn't know about the case, you need to make a Statutory Declaration to the court to tell them this and the case will be re-heard.

 

Unfortunately though, you'll probably still be found guilty and ordered to pay a fine and costs amounting to about what is being demanded now.

 

If it was a Byelaw offence you are being charged with, then there's very little defence, as it's an offence of Strict Liability

(You either did travel without buying a ticket, or you didn't…

As long as nobody gave you permission and there were places at your origin to buy tickets, you have no defence I'm afraid.).

 

If charged under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, the train company would need to be able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that you intended to avoid payment.

 

If the latter is applicable, then you should obviously plead not guilty, assuming you were not guilty.

 

First things first though, the Statutory Declaration is the way to go.

[richardsun]

thanks for the reply guys.

 

yes i realize i was too stupid for doing it and my comment

'Obviously I wasn't trying to avoid paying my fare, as I had plenty of money on me at the time…' is dumb too.

 

But i was travelling near peak time to a major station (where in the past i have paid for tickets when i got there(and seen plenty of other people do so))

so i didnt think it would be a problem.

 

I havent moved address but I did have another matter that i thought went away about 2 years ago regarding a similar situation.

 

Long story short, there was some sort of problem with my oyster card, i got fined, and appealed it.

I didnt receive anything back from them so i presumed the matter was closed.

This was 2 years ago when i was working in London.

 

So what your saying about them cutting the middle man out seems to make sense here given that technically speaking it wasnt my first offence

so i guess they thought i was avoiding the fine again.

 

Firstly, how do i go about finding out what the judgement was?

Secondly, how do i go about this statutory declaration?

 

Also, why did i not receive any letters before this? thanks

[richardsun]

Actually thinking about it, im not sure which of these 2 events this letter is referring to. How do i find out if this is referring to last year or 2 years ago?

[dx100uk]

the named court on both.

 

will deal with your enquiry and the sd if you wish just ask then

 

dx

[richardsun]

i dont know what the named court is. All the letter says is there is a distress warrant for non payment of a magistrates fine and Collectica have been instructed by South East London to execute this warrant.

[Old-CodJA]

Firstly, how do i go about finding out what the judgement was?

Secondly, how do i go about this statutory declaration?

 

Also, why did i not receive any letters before this? thanks

 

 

First: The notice that you have received from bailiffs will tell you what it is for and which Court the judgment was made at.

 

If you have any doubt about the amount of that judgment and if you cannot see a number on the paperwork to call, go to the HMCTS website and look up the relevant Court.

 

I have no doubt that the Court office will have a record showing that they sent you a notice of judgment stating how much you had to pay in fine, costs & victim surcharge

 

To get this knocked back to start again you will need to go to your local Magistrates Court, take the paperwork with you and ask to make a Statutory Declaration