collectica More scaremongering and lack of advice

[numbers666]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3167089/Family-fear-lose-home-daughter-failed-pay-4-train-ticket-three-years-ago-owe-650-fines.html

 

Maybe needs to be in rail idk.

 

I do agree that 30 pounds should not escalate in proportion.

 

But bad advice by cab if true. The debt does not escalate 300 per visit.

[unclebulgaria67]

I did wonder when i read it earlier.

[Bailiff Advice]

Rail fare evasion has one of the highest fine levels (up to £1,000) and causes endless problems for parents given that the vast majority of the fines are given to young adults.

 

I was surprised to read the story yesterday and in particular, the headline that the parents face losing their HOME. This is complete nonsense and the reporter who covered this story really needs a dressing down. The correct position is that an enforcement agent can remove goods BELONGING TO THE DEBTOR. Clearly given the age of the debtor it will be obvious to anyone that the goods in the property do not belong to the debtor.

 

What this story has highlighted though is the importance of dealing with correspondence. The debtor confirms that she had many opportunities to deal with the matter and the mother confirms that she too did not pass correspondence to her daughter. Given that the daughter has confirmed publicly that she ignored all correspondence she now cannot file a Statutory Declaration and needs to address the matter

 

The article itself has so many inaccuracies that I am not persuaed that the CAB had stated that each visit will be charged at £300.

[josephbloggs]

The whole thing has been sensationalised for the papers

I doubt the cab court or bailiffs would hve said anything like what is being reported

 

Incidentally speaking to my mate who works for marstons he said he gets 2 or 3 a week of this type of fine and very rarely comes across a genuine case. He said most of them are people who have used a different persons name and it seems the people issuing the fines out are not doing anything to check the offenders identity

[caledfwlch]

I would not be surprised if the article is intentionally wrong to frighten others on behalf of the editor's mates in enforcement.

[sillygirl1]

It is a sensationalist article in the worst sense - all the information contained in it is inaccurate and misleading. Gone are the days when these journalists used to have to check and verify their facts - they can't even check and verify their spelling and grammar properly!

[Bailiff Advice]

 

Incidentally speaking to my mate who works for marstons he said he gets 2 or 3 a week of this type of fine and very rarely comes across a genuine case. He said most of them are people who have used a different persons name and it seems the people issuing the fines out are not doing anything to check the offenders identity

 

This same situation happend to my own son when he was at Uni. He received a 'court fine' letter at home claiming that he had been caught on a train without paying. The date of the 'offence' was the start of 'half term' and back in those days, I would have picked my son up from Uni by car so we knew that he was not involved. Upon checking with the court we were provided with details of the train journey and it was sadly discovered that the person who committed the offence was a young lad who was in the same year as my son and who was well known to our family. He had even spent weekends with us!!!

 

He was actually expelled by Uni as it transpired that he had done the same with another person a year earlier. The train operators should at the very least, demand some sort of ID from those caught.

[numbers666]

He was actually expelled by Uni as it transpired that he had done the same with another person a year earlier. The train operators should at the very least, demand some sort of ID from those caught.

 

DNA sample at time of capture....

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

DNA sample at time of capture....

 

Lol, yes.

[caledfwlch]

This same situation happend to my own son when he was at Uni. He received a 'court fine' letter at home claiming that he had been caught on a train without paying. The date of the 'offence' was the start of 'half term' and back in those days, I would have picked my son up from Uni by car so we knew that he was not involved. Upon checking with the court we were provided with details of the train journey and it was sadly discovered that the person who committed the offence was a young lad who was in the same year as my son and who was well known to our family. He had even spent weekends with us!!!

 

He was actually expelled by Uni as it transpired that he had done the same with another person a year earlier. The train operators should at the very least, demand some sort of ID from those caught.

 

Given the seriousness of what can happen, court fines, EA's forcing entry into homes etc, you would think that Retail Protection Agents, or whatever they currently call themselves would do a bit more than ask for name and address.... Even demanding to see a bank card would show if a false name is being given, and if the suspect claims to have no card and no ID at all, then call up a friendly British Transport Copper to come and do the checks.

 

Incidiently, it is also possible to be arrested for charging your phone/laptop etc on wall sockets in trains, if the socket is not clearly marked as for customers use!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3159582/Rail-passenger-furious-arrested-stealing-electricity-plug-point-train-charge-phone.html

 

The guy was originally arrested for "abstraction of electricty"!!!!

 

I am surprised the Enforcement Industry itself doesn't make a fuss when shows like Eastenders and badly written articles portray the industry as still being a bunch of shaven headed thugs behaving however they feel like, it doesnt do their image much good.