Philips Bailiffs - seatbelt fine!

bellrooster

Hi folks

I'm writing on behalf my OH, at the end of the last year he got caught driving without his seat belt on and subsequently was fined, I'm not 100% sure of the amount. Certainly less than £50 and up until now I assumed he had paid it.

Last week we had a hand deliverer letter from Philips Bailiffs saying that the debt was now with them. I gave the letter straight to OH to sort out as I was understandably furious that he hadn't paid the fine to start with. :mad: He rang the number on the letter a number of times during the course of the next day and there was no answer - the number given just rang and rang. At this point the fine was now £195.

The following day after trying to get in touch, another letter came and another £50 had been added to the fine taking it to £245, Once again my OH did get through to the Bailiff and said that he wanted to contact the court issuing the fine before paying, the bailiff agreed on this and said that he would give him to the end of the day Tuesday (5th may)

My partner didn't get in touch with the magistrates court on Tuesday (don't know why?grrr) but on returning home on Tuesday we found another hand delivered letter asking for the fine again, totalling £295. So another £50 has been added.

Yesterday my OH phoned the Bailiff and asked why he sent the letter again, when they had agreed to speak at the end of the day Tuesday. The answer was, 'he was in the area, so he thought he would drop in another letter', and that if OH didn't pay by 11am that day, then he would take the fine back to court and get a warrant for his arrest.

OH then phoned the court and the lady says that they do not instruct philips to add any amounts on to the fine, and that as it stands, the fine is £145. OH asked if he could pay that amount to them there and then, but they said we had to pay the bailiff. OH rung the payment line for Philips, but they wouldn't accept payments, OH had to pay the bailiff directly. So OH phoned the Bailiff again, and explained we could not pay the full amount off straight away, but would pay the £145. Bailiff said, 'they are not loan service' and would not accept anything but the full amount.

So we're in stalemate really!

any advice would be appreciated!

scaredy_cat

You need to contact Herbie21, send her a pm with all the Bailiff info - name, any charges they have listed, the amounts they are adding on, etc. Her in box gets full so keep trying.

or try the helpline number on her website - http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/

bellrooster

Hi Scaredy cat

thanks for replying, I've been in touch with Herbie before re council tax, so I've had a good luck at the website.

I think the best thing we can do is ask for a hearing to with the magistrates court to explain we haven't got a lot of money at the moment, we're already paying huge amounts council tax to Bailiffs at the moment so missing a payment to council tax bailiff to pay this fine bailiff isn't an option!

Clunk click every trip... how hard is it? ? ? ? :mad::mad::mad: