collectica threatening arrest over missed payment on old train 'fine'

[Caevans]

My friend in his younger days was a silly boy and travelled on the train without paying his fare,

he got caught and taken to court and fined.

 

 

He has been paying back the fine (it was stopped out of his benefit money automatically).

 

 

earlier this year there was a problem with his benefit and it got stopped for a couple of weeks,

obviously during this time the fine stopped being paid.

 

 

When he got his benefits sorted out he asked for the fine to start being paid againand was told that it would be.

 

 

By this time the fine had been paid all but £45.

 

 

Yesterday a representative of Collectica turned up at his door and hand delivered a letter.

When he was given it he phoned Collectica and was told that if he didn't pay the £345 he now owed he would be arrested.

 

 

After explaining he was on benefits and proving he didn't have £345 in his bank

they told him he has to pay £40 every 2 weeks otherwise he will be arrested.

 

 

He asked why it had gone from £45 to £345 and was told that it was court charges,

they had taken him to court within the last month and the charges were assigned to him.

 

 

He received no court date, no court letters, no paperwork whatsoever.

They wont even tell him the date that they took him to court.

 

 

He was going to try setting up a payment where it is taken from his benefit

but Collectica has said that needs to be done through the court

so he phoned the court who would just say that it in the hands of Collectica.

 

Any help you can give is much appreciated

[unclebulgaria67]

Your friend needs to get some letter from Job Centre Plus or DWP saying that his benefit was stopped between x dates and that the deduction of the fine was affected. Then he should take the letter to Magistates and ask to make a statutory declaration about what has happened with the fine repayment. He should state his financial situation and ask to be able to continue paying the fine out of benefits.

[tomtubby]

Having provided assistance to probably thousands of fine defaulters over the past 7 years the fact remains that one of the most frequent reasons for defaulting on a court fine is where payments were being deducted at source from benefits and where the debtor came off benefits for one reason or another. The problem that arises is that DWP are supposed to write to the debtor to advise that payments have stopped and although this seems to be the case....delays occurs etc.

 

The magistrates court take the view that it is for the debtor to contact the court in such cases and arrange to pay monthly etc (the amount by law cannot be lower than £5 per week).

 

For your friend to have got to this stage (of the debt being £345) means that the should have first received a Further Steps Notice from the Magistrates Court and next to receive a Notice of Enforcement form Collectica Ltd. If you friend did not receive one of this letters it is understandable.....but not to have supposedly received both (one form the court and one from Collectica) is not so easy to understand !!!

 

Has your friend moved house?

 

I am deeply concerned at a debt of £45 being passed to bailiffs and I will look into this later today.

 

Can you check with your friend about the missing letters etc.