Appealing Traffic Volation Fines From Bailiff

[Beswad]

The bailiff turns up on your door steps and demands you pay �500 for an unpaid traffic volation you are unaware of.

The bailiff explained the fine was for driving on the bus lane. There had been letters of the fine sent and warning of court action but the person DID NOT recieve any such letter from the post. Had he recieved the fine notice he would willingly pay up.

Where does he stand on this matter? Can he appeal?

[Coobeastie]

Considering about 6 letters would have been sent before the bailiffs turned up at the door to enforce the charge why is this the first they've heard of it? Have the letters gone to the wrong address of have they just been ignored? (it does happen)

Would have thought that at least one of these letters would have been sent by recorded mail.

I'd have to say that the chances of appealing this are pretty slim, as the chance to say 'no letters have been received' would have been several letters back (when the debt notification was sent).

Might be worth a try though. They'd need to speak nicely to the bailiffs and hope that they refer it back to the authority who issued the fine in the first place.

[BillyNoMates]

Tell them to f*** off. Then ask for proof of said letters, proof of the offence - photographic evidence, copies of letters.

Once he/she has these they can follow up this dubious/bogus claim with the original issuing authority.

Sounds like a total scam to me.

[Beswad]

This happened to one of my relative. It seems foolish not to pay the orginal fine in the first place, why would anyone want court action and a vist from the bailiffs. It seems the letters have been sent to the wrong address if so I was wondering if he can contest in court that he did not recieve any letter.

He already paid the bailiff and is rather depress about it.

[BillyNoMates]

Well one must then question why these letters where sent to the wrong address. Has your friend not registered his/her car correctly with the DVLA ?

[Keeprockin]

As someone pointed out, at least one of those letters will/should have been a recorded delivery,or whatever GPO have replaced it with. That being the case,someone will have signed for it and a record of the signature will around somewhere.

Not sure,but won't having bailiffs involved also put your credit worthiness at risk?.

Simple solution would have been to pay up if the person was caught commiting an offence,you know when your parking/speeding illegally,,just hold your hands up and take it as part of the chance taken

[JudgeJ]

The initial advice provided by BillyNoMates (�tell them to go forth and multiply�) is not at all helpful and it will not resolve the problem. Bailiffs are not easily intimidated, and they tend to be less than impressed by such behaviour. They will not disappear, except perhaps to fetch the police to help them with their enforcement. Their additional costs in having to do so will be added to the final bill. In settling the matter with them, your relative has probably already realised this.

From what you say, the argument is that the original penalty notice was not received, nor was any of the various correspondence which usually follows. This includes a �Notice to Owner� when the penalty has remained unpaid for more than 28 days as well as County Court correspondence. (The matter has to be raised in the County Court before it can be passed to bailiffs).

You relative should note that once the matter has been passed to the County Court, and then to the bailiffs, the local authority which originally issued the ticket takes no further part in the proceedings as the matter has now become a County Court debt. If he wishes to maintain his argument that he was not aware of the matter until the bailiffs arrived he will need to swear a statutory declaration to that effect before either the County Court, a Commissioner for Oaths, or a Magistrates� Court. Once this has been done, the clock will start ticking again and he will have the usual opportunities to get discount for prompt payment, or to appeal if he thinks he is not responsible for the offence.

He should be aware (and will be warned before he makes his declaration) that if he knowingly makes a false declaration he can be convicted of perjury, for which the maximum sentence is seven years imprisonment.

[Beswad]

Thank you all for your input.

Keeprockin, knowing my relative he is more than willing to pay the original fine had he recieved the offence notice.

I can vouch they do get it wrong. Recently I've been recieving fines through the post which isn't in my name or my flat neighbours, it was the right street but wrong house number, I can see this same thing will happen to the owner of that vechicle.