Philips Bailiffs - Notice of Distress Warrant - Please Help

[besidetheseaside]

Hi,

 

I have just joined this site as I wanted to share our experience with Philips the Bailiffs.

 

My other half started getting letters from these bailiffs in May which had no date and no details on them only it was on behalf of HMCS North East London and the amount was for £293.19 and it threatened enforcement action.

 

I tried to look up Philips on the net and there was a lot of bad write ups from other people saying there were sent letters out of the blue and they had no idea what it was for. I even rang a debt agency who told us to ignore it as it sounded like a [problem].

 

We then got a letter dated 26th May which said it was a distress warrant and that a warrant for arrest could be issued, we actually got sent 2 of these in the same week, which by the way were send to our old address.

 

I started to panic incase these were actually real bailiffs and could arrest him, my other half still couldnt think of anything had owed.

I rang tried to find out which courts were in the North East London area as I didnt where we lived at the time came under this area,

 

I found out it did and tried to find a phone number to contact someone about this fine I rang and rang and constantly got cut off or transfered over and over to recorded messages.

 

We then rang Philips, who when we got through wanted to take a payment off us before we even found out what it was all about!

They just said it was from ' 5 YEARS AGO' and it was for an untaxed car and had no other information,

 

we didnt pay them anything or give any information about us either just said we know nothing of this ,

they told us to contact the court and gave no telephone number and were very unhelpful.

 

In the end I found an email address on one of the court websites which was for enquires and I sent and email with out enquiry,

we got a response the next day and were told that if we knew nothing of this fine and its the first we heard of it then we needed to go to our local magistrates court and swear on oathe and then they can stop the bailiff action

 

she also gave me a phone number to contact the court, which I got through on straight away.

The guy was really helpful and sympathetic and booked us in straight away for 9.30am monday morning and said take ID and the bailiffs letters with you.

 

We got a telephone call in the meantime from our old local magistrates court saying she had found an outstanding fine from an old address regarding a car fine but that was over 5 years ago and there was nothing else.

 

We turned up for court my other half walked in and came back out in about 5 minutes.

The court clerk looked at the details said they have nothing on their systems and it was so long ago and could not possibly prove this,

 

he asked my other half whether he had taxed the vehicle in question and of course he said yes.

The clerk was very helpful and said he was recommending the judge throw this out of court and photographed the bailiffs letter and said they would inform them.

 

We walked away happy with the outcome but my other half lost a days wages.

 

Sorry if this is a long reply but I just hope this helps you or someone else in this situation who are getting these horrible bailiff letters.

[mortyarty]

Now I've got enough time to chase the original court for details - however, I had the phone ringing for 3 hours yesterday and they didn't pick up

 

We phoned this court repeatedly over a number of weeks and were only answered twice by a poor guy in the holding cells who said he gets many calls a day chasing details of the type mentioned here, and then finally got through to someone who was fairly helpfull, but couldn't give us any details over the phone - so I would suggest that everyone writes directly to the court

[besidetheseaside]

why dont you try what we did , email the enquires department for the court area in question, you should find this if you google it. I got a response straight away with 2 telephone numbers for 2 courts one for my old area and one for new area I got through to a guy who probably works in the back office as I got answered straight away, it was not probably the actual court itself I didnt ask as I was so releived to actual be able to speak to someone, but he did all the investigations for me to find out about the fine and contacted the court where then fine had originated and got them to fax all the details over to the court which I wanted use which was nearer to me. He booked me a appointment to swear an oath that this was the first time we had heard about this fine , was in and out the court very quick and they just threw it out as it was 6 years ago. I dont know where these bailifffs are dragging all this old stuff up from, but they are just sending out threatening letters on the hope that some people pay up, when as in our case they really dont need to.

[kandy1800]

Beside the seaside: Could you pm me the email address as I am having the same problem for the same court area, and no luck getting through on the phone. Thanks! (sorry I couldn't pm as my post count wasn't high enough)

Edited June 23, 2011 by kandy1800
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[besidetheseaside]

hi I will try and email the address for enquiries to you, I am new to this site too, they also gave me 3 phone numbers for courts Southend , Havering and Medway, you will need to book into your nearest court to give a statutory declaration and whichever court issued your fine will have to send the paperwork to that court if its not the same area. Do you want me to send any of the court numbers above if not just email that address explain your situation and ask for your area court telephone number. Good Luck

[kandy1800]

Thanks for the information (sorry it still won't let me PM as my post count is not enough yet), I have managed to make contact through that email. If you wouldn't mind also sending me the phone numbers you were sent that would be very helpful. Thank you so much.

[besidetheseaside]

Hi I have emailed you the 3 court telephone numbers I have ok , good luck

[kandy1800]

Hi I have emailed you the 3 court telephone numbers I have ok , good luck

 

Thank you so much, have finally managed to make contact and am making some progress with this thing. Everyone, I recommend you follow besidetheseaside's advice in this thread.