Awful experience..can anybody help?

[Jocker2000]

Thank you in advance for any help, I will try and keep this as quick and factual as possible, my wife received a fine for no car tax, genuine mistake when the new system came into place, paper discs to online we missed the tax on one of our cars, and in the meantime moved house and did not get the reminder, our fault, genuine mistake.

 

We had a fine come through the post so I paid and backdated the tax, set up new reminder for new address etc etc, I appealed against the fine for reasons listed above but lost my appeal, I paid the fine of £80 in 2 instalments 2 days apart on the 15th Nov 2015….at 6.30 am I had a knock on the door this morning from a rude gent element from a company called Marstons who is charging me £325 for non -payment of fines as he said the last payment was made 9 days late! and the matter had already escalated to the court!!! As I was due to go to work and I have a 5 month old baby and a 4 years old in my house , I paid it but I what I want to know is:

 

Can I get the money back and from who?

What is the process?

I never received a 7 day letter or anything at all from Marstons even though the bailiff said it was sent, I asked him to provide a copy to which he said he did not have to, is this correct? surely if you are relying on something you must be able to shoe it, or proof of delivery?

He only had a copy of a printout from his company is this correct?He threatened to knock on my neighbours door is this lawful?

He even offered to fight me in the garden, is this legal?

He said he could take goods straight away is this legal and made out to phone some enforcement truck to take my stuff away immediately, is this legal?

Can I request a copy of his mobile video recorder ( camera) pinned to his jacket to which he told me everything was being recorded?

He even showed me on his iPad the dates and time so of the 2 payment I made so I really do not know what the hell he was trying to collect?

I understand the maximum i should of paid was £75 is this correct?

I admit the fine was slightly late but £325 out of the blue, surely this cannot be right?

 

Thank you.

[honeybee13]

Hello there. I expect people will be along later with advice for you.

 

In the meantime, I've moved your thread from the discussions subforum to the main bailiffs forum.

 

HB

[Peterbard]

Hi

 

 

 

I suppose the first question to clear up is how soon after receiving the notice of fine, did you pay it.

[Peterbard]

Also my understanding that the fines which rely on entries in the register are generally enforced by debt collectors rather than bailiffs. Unless this was an on road sighting ?

[Jocker2000]

Hi dodgeball, Yes this was on an on road sighting, on a mobile camera, I paid the fine in 2 instalments of £40 but the 2nd payment was 9 days late as I was waiting to be paid as I am self employed and was paid late, The bailiff told me the funds were court costs to execute a warrant but he refused to show me any paperwork other than a compute printout from Marstons? I also genuinely did not receive any letter that it had been passed to Marstons, the previous owner of my house was sadly in financial difficulty and when we first moved in we had several bailiff letters either received in the post or posted through the door by hand, but Marstons just want me to pay £325 without even showing me the documentation to which they rely on.

[unclebulgaria67]

Get in touch with the court that dealt with this and obtain full details. E.g when did they pass this to Marstons, what address was given to Marstons etc. The court are responsible for the actions of Marstons and their officers.

 

It seems obvious Marstons actions are purely to obtain their fees. The fine was paid, so there should be nothing to collect. If the court had passed it to Marstons before the fine was paid, then you would have to pay Marstons a £75 compliance fee, when a notice of enforcement is sent. Of course many people say they did not receive this. marsons then come knocking on the door at a time to cause alarm and to gain payment in the way you have described. Any video evidence won't be available and it will be your word against the Enforcement Officer who attended. If you complain to Marstons, you will probably find them unhelpful, as they have your money. Hence why you should get in touch with the court first to obtain information. Then come back for more advice.

[BankFodder]

I'm not sure that Marstons would be so unhelpful. They do have a complaints structure and I think that in view of the behaviour which you have described, you should make a complaint and let us know what happens.

 

I would be very interested if you would post up if in fact you found that the complaints procedure had not been correctly followed. In that event, you I would be pleased to try and make some further and more direct enquiries for you.

[Bailiff Advice]

Thank you in advance for any help, I will try and keep this as quick and factual as possible, my wife received a fine for no car tax, genuine mistake when the new system came into place, paper discs to online we missed the tax on one of our cars, and in the meantime moved house and did not get the reminder, our fault, genuine mistake.

 

We had a fine come through the post so I paid and backdated the tax, set up new reminder for new address etc etc, I appealed against the fine for reasons listed above but lost my appeal, I paid the fine of £80 in 2 instalments 2 days apart on the 15th Nov 2015….at 6.30 am I had a knock on the door this morning from a rude gent element from a company called Marstons who is charging me £325 for non -payment of fines as he said the last payment was made 9 days late! and the matter had already escalated to the court!!! As I was due to go to work and I have a 5 month old baby and a 4 years old in my house , I paid it but I what I want to know is:

 

You have said above that you were made aware that you had a fine and you then moved house. You then appealed the fine and lost and paid £80 in two instalments (2 days apart on 15th November 2015). From what you have said, the payments were made AFTER the expiry time given on the Further Steps Notice and accordingly a warrant appears to have been issued.

 

Was the payment made AFTER you moved home?

 

Did you receive a Further Steps Notice?

 

Was it today at 6.30 that the enforcement agents visited your home?

[unclebulgaria67]

Seems to me that in cases where a court fine has been paid slightly late, that the court needs to think about their actions. The court has received the fine money way before any enforcement activity has started and there is nothing for Marstons to collect apart from any legitimate fees that may be due ( possibly £75 compliance admin fee). There needs to be a better process for this, so people don't have an EO turning up at an address 6.30am on a Saturday, purely to collect their fees.

 

If i were the OP, i would take this up with the court concerned and if necessary get my local MP to take it up with the Ministry of Justice.

[Bailiff Advice]

Seems to me that in cases where a court fine has been paid slightly late, that the court needs to think about their actions. The court has received the fine money way before any enforcement activity has started and there is nothing for Marstons to collect apart from any legitimate fees that may be due ( possibly £75 compliance admin fee.

 

As outlined in this thread, there is a lot of uncertainty about when exactly payment had been made and the date of the Further Steps Notice. Hopefully the poster may return and provide the answers.

 

The Further Steps Notice is the final document from the Fines Officer and outlines the various steps that he will take if the amount is not paid within 10 working days. I would assume that the warrant would not be authorised on day 11 as this would not give sufficient time to process payments made during the 10th working day. I will make enquiries with this point later today.

 

Anybody making 'direct payments' to the Magistrates Court after the period noted on the Further Steps Notice automatically receives a letter from the court advising that the payment has been forwarded to one of the four enforcement companies contracted by them to enforce these warrants (Marston Group, Collectica, Excel Enforcement or Swift). The enforcement agent is then legally permitted to deduct their compliance fee of £75 from that payment.

 

Once a warrant has been issued, the Magistrate Court cannot accept direct payments. The reason for this is outlined in the following post:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?458334-Magistrate-Court-fines.....Compliance-fee-of-%A375-and-Enforcement-fee-of-%A3235-are-legally-due.&p=4884322&viewfull=1#post4884322

[brassnecked]

The timing issues and when cleared funds are actually showing in the account is moot, it seems that any payment after day 7 might not be showing by day 11, so an automated system would send the account to the bailiff if it hasn't a safeguard that holds action until say day 14 to allow for payments after day 7.

[unclebulgaria67]

As outlined in this thread, there is a lot of uncertainty about when exactly payment had been made and the date of the Further Steps Notice. Hopefully the poster may return and provide the answers.

 

The Further Steps Notice is the final document from the Fines Officer and outlines the various steps that he will take if the amount is not paid within 10 working days. I would assume that the warrant would not be authorised on day 11 as this would not give sufficient time to process payments made during the 10th working day. I will make enquiries with this point later today.

 

Anybody making 'direct payments' to the Magistrates Court after the period noted on the Further Steps Notice automatically receives a letter from the court advising that the payment has been forwarded to one of the four enforcement companies contracted by them to enforce these warrants (Marston Group, Collectica, Excel Enforcement or Swift). The enforcement agent is then legally permitted to deduct their compliance fee of £75 from that payment.

 

Once a warrant has been issued, the Magistrate Court cannot accept direct payments. The reason for this is outlined in the following post:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?458334-Magistrate-Court-fines.....Compliance-fee-of-%A375-and-Enforcement-fee-of-%A3235-are-legally-due.&p=4884322&viewfull=1#post4884322

 

I don't think Magistrates courts are that efficient in processing. it could be the case that the FSN was issued after the fine had been paid, hence why the OP needs to enquire with the court.

[Peterbard]

I have a problem understanding this,.

 

The OP said that he forgot to renew, in the first post, when asked later he said it was due to an on road sighting,

 

The eighty pound fine would be commensurate with a fixed fine, which is a civil fine imposed by the DVLA and if not payed is pursed as such by a debt collector, it does not automatically escalate through the magistrates court, in fact the DVLA do not pursue these and if they did it would be via the county(civil ) court.

 

If this were an on road sightg the fine would not be a fixed penalty notice it would be for £30 plus an amount which is calculated from the period which the tax is overdue, this would be a criminal fine and enforceable through the magistrates court.

 

So which is it ?