Attachment of earnings order issued in error

[deni1949]

My son received a copy of a letter, sent by his former employer to a court in Reading, in reply to their request for information about his current employment.

 

The request was made in connection with an attachment of earnings order issued against him, about which my son knew nothing. He was employed by Cumbria County council on a zero hours contract and as his wages varied from week to week, didn't realise that two payments had been made on this order, one in February and one in March. He has not been employment since then.

 

On contacting the court in Reading, my son was informed that the AEO was made to recover fines imposed by Reading magistrates , in connection with motoring fines.

 

One of these was for failing to report and accident in Maidenhead (which my son has never visited) and for failing to notify the DVLA of a change of ownership (of a vehicle my son has never owned). He has not received any letters about the motoring offence, or about the court judgement, or about the AEO.

 

 

He has been told that he has to send an email to the court, giving all the details, but that he will have to go to court to swear on oath that he is not the person who was fined by the court.

 

 

Has anyone any idea how this could have happened and if the AEO will affect him in any way?

Edited August 19, 2015 by citizenB
formatted for easier reading

[citizenB]

I will try and find someone who can help.

 

Sounds like someone has well and truly muddled themselves doesn't it ?

[deni1949]

Thank you, it's all very strange. Obviously someone, somewhere, has been fined for these offences, but it's definitely not my son. We just don't know how' or why, the court used my son's National Insurance number for setting up the order.

[dx100uk]

our backroom boys said:

 

 

Given that he is no longer in employment..then the AOE is now defunct...as for any refund or sorting this error the poster as stated she already knows what to do.

 

" He has been told that he has to send an email to the court, giving all the details, but that he will have to go to court to swear on oath that he is not the person who was fined by the court."

[mikeymack2002]

If the person knew nothing of the Court case they can apply to make a statutory declaration at Court they have 21 days from when they first knew of the offence. This will reset the case and will be re heard the same day. They will be asked if they intend to plead guilty or not. The case will be heard again and then sentenced again or found not guilty...

[deni1949]

Thank you for your reply. Whilst we do know what we have to do to get the order removed, and my son will send the requested email today, it is quite alarming that the AOE was issued to my son in the first place. He has done nothing wrong, yet a court order was made against him without his knowledge, over £100 was deducted from his wages as a result, and he now has to go to court in an attempt to clear his name and get this back .

 

 

Yesterday, he spoke to people from three different courts - the court that issued the fine, the court that issued the order, and our local court. None of them were able to explain how the order came to be made against my son (they had no record of his name, or address, in connection with any offences) but no one offered to try and find out, or made any sort of apology. The email he has to send is merely for him to state that he is not the offender, and no one has offered to investigate the matter for him.

 

 

I had never even heard of an AOE until yesterday, but as I understand from what I have read about them since, it would appear that they can only be issued once the court has received a form completed by the person who owes the money.

If this is the case, then all correspondence concerning the intended prosecution, the fine and the AOE must have been successfully delivered to the offender, and he must have replied.

 

 

So, how is it possible that my son has become involved? Could it be a clerical error, which resulted in my son's NI number being used instead of the offender's, and if so, how easy is it for such errors to be made and is there anyone we can contact to find out?

 

 

I'm sorry if I'm being a bit of a nuisance, but as you can probably imagine, my son is quite upset about it all, and we have no idea how long it will take for the matter to be resolved.

Edited August 20, 2015 by citizenB

[citizenB]

It doesn't make sense that so much personal data required to set up one of these has been incorrectly applied to your Son ?

 

Could there be any chance that the company your Son is employed by has made an error ?

[AndyOrch]

" I had never even heard of an AOE until yesterday, but as I understand from what I have read about them since, it would appear that they can only be issued once the court has received a form completed by the person who owes the money.

If this is the case, then all correspondence concerning the intended prosecution, the fine and the AOE must have been successfully delivered to the offender, and he must have replied."

 

Very true...to get to this stage.....the defendant would have had to of completed and returned an N56 (AoE) response...he would have had to of known your sons address & employer ...National insurance Number etc.

 

Very strange

Andy

[deni1949]

I have contacted my son's former employers and they definitely didn't make a mistake. The order was made against my son by the court, who only gave his name and national insurance number to his employers. According to the lady I spoke to, a mistake was probably made when the defendant's national insurance number, as given on the N56 form, was wrongly inputted into the computer and just happened to be my son's national insurance number instead.

It is indeed very strange and quite worrying too.

 

Denise

[dx100uk]

wow that is really out of order

bit as far as im aware 'one' character mistake on an nhi number does not equal another person?

I believe the numbering system is so designed for this not be able to happen..

[deni1949]

I'm sure you're right about the NI number, as the system would be chaotic if it was so easy to make a mistake. The court has somehow got my son's NI number though - even though they don't have his address.

[mikeymack2002]

Most Court offices now do not deal with the public so you will need to contact the "head office" Court in your County and then make sure you get this back in to Court ASAP... Follow this link pick your County get the correct number ring them and get your SD before it is too late see below for the link

 

 

https://www.cps.gov.uk/contact/local.html

[Ganymede]

How did your son not notice that big a deduction from his salary?!

[deni1949]

He didn't notice because he was employed as a relief care worker, with different hours each week and therefore variable wages.

 

The first (and biggest) deduction was made at the end of January, for a pay period which included Christmas and the New Year.

 

During this time, he worked quite a few extra hours - including ones which were classed as overtime - so his pay was much higher than normal and he had no reason to believe that he was entitled to any more. Also, he knew that any hours not paid one month, would be added to his pay the next.

[AndyOrch]

Was there no deduction /reference information on his pay slip? Employers must detail or deductions by law.

[deni1949]

Yes, there was a reference, but my son didn't notice it at the time.

 

 

Looking at the payslip now, it just says under Deductions, 'Fines AEO £95.36'.

 

 

If he HAD noticed, he might have wondered what an AEO was and queried it,

but even if he had, the order had already been made, and he would still have had to go to court to get it removed.

 

I have now spoken to my son about his conversation with the courts last Wednesday.

 

 

The court in Bicester, which had applied the order, were curt and offhand, refusing to believe him at first when he told them that he lived in Cumbria (where he has lived for the whole of his life) , and not on a farm in Maidenhead, where he was told the actual offender lived.

 

 

Apparently, the offender shares his name, which might explain how the mistake came to be made.

 

He sent the requested email to the court on Thursday morning, which was a written declaration that he was not the offender, but so far has received no reply, other than an acknowledgement that the email was received.

 

As you can probably imagine, this is all quite distressing and worrying

- especially as we have no idea when the situation will be resolved, or how the order might affect my son's employment or credit status.

 

Almost as bad, is the court's lack of concern that such an order was made against a completely innocent person, and their reluctance to investigate how the mistake came to be made.

 

Do you think that we would be justified in making a complaint to the court concerned?

[numbers666]

Yes totally justified.

 

 

What if this is also identity theft ? Get the oath sworn.

 

Then I would be contacting everyone.

MP local press cps.

 

 

Yes the payslip could have been checked better but the fault is the court servivce.

 

 

What if the employment ended because the employer received the aoe ?

 

 

Can of worms.

[citizenB]

Yes, make a complaint to the court concerned and also your local MP.