Can they send me to prison !

Bossyboots

cookiesncream wrote:

I'm with you on that one. You can't go to prision unless it's for the two above debts AND you refuse bailiffs entry for a couple of years.

Agreement from me on this as well.

Mike_St_Helens

Thats Fab news... Its kind of just as I thought. They are not getting a penny.... But how can they legally say that they can send you to prison, after all OneTel is not a small firm, im sure that they know what they are doing.

MD

cookiesncream

was it from OneTel themselves or through Debt Collection Agency? Because the latter are very good at making you feel like a criminal in a very agressive way. I don't know much about what I'm going to suggest, but if you have that comment in writing, I'd make a song and dance about it to the authorities because that is not on!

armarda

sparkle84 wrote:

This is completly wrong information - there is no question of be sent to jail debtors prisons were abolished over 100 years ago - 1 it will never go to court for £6.99 2. If you are order to pay by court (CCJ) and refuse then they can send in the baliffs, the only debts you can be jailed for are Crown Debts i.e Council Tax and Inland Revenue

Sparkle84 - read what I wrote. I never suggested that there were debtors jails as there certainly are not. What I said, and I stand by this is that you CAN go to prison if, in any particular circumstances, the court finds you guilty of contempt - namely that they tell you to do something but you refuse to do it and the maximum sentence is 2 years. This power IS sometimes used by the courts, for example if a witness in a criminal trial refuses to answer questions or is disrespectful to a court or a person refuses to comply with an civil injunction, although I personally have never heard of a contempt of court jailing for debt recovery and would consider it highly unlikely to occur. I never suggested that Onetel themselves could send him to jail and I would certainly agree that their choice of language is misleading.

Don't be so sure though that they won't go after someone for £6.99 - some companies will have policies to pursue such sums to ensure that other customers don't just think they can walk away from owing small sums. As I said before personally I think I would just pay to make this go away.

cookiesncream

I understand what you are saying but I doubt that'd happen for a debt. I don't think the judges are allowed to do that. The course of action is to send the bailiffs in. We have heard of this happening tho, there were the high media cases about the rise in counil tax but again, that was a crown debt not 6.99 to OneTel.

lewt

this company must be SKINT! hold out as long as you can and they'll prob go under anyway...

bargainbetty

Contempt of court sentences are usually limited to between one and seven days. It is almost unheard of to have a longer sentence than that, due to the nature of the offence.

Contact the firm and ask them to provide you with details of the debt, how it was accrued, charges associated etc. If they can provide sufficent evidence, then pay it, but demand a notice of full and final closure, so they can't pull this again.

I'd also remind them that threats and intimidation are considered harrassment, which is now considered part of the Actual Bodily Harm laws (ABH). That IS punishable by imprisonment.

If they don't come up with any proof of the debt being yours, write to Watchdog, your MP, Martin, the local press etc, asking that they get involved to stop this happening to other people.

If everyone stopped paying up on these little bills and fought the scare tactics, maybe the business would have to change. Think of all the scared people without support who pay these fake debts though they can't afford it, because they fear jail???

Good luck - I hope it works out for you.

In_Search_Of_Me

Is it me?!! Is thsi really worth it for that amount of money? Yes I know we're DFW's but you really need to be 100% certain that you dont owe the money...your credit rating, never mind court stuff, could be seriously affected & all for less than £10! I'm not saying that you shouldnt make a formal complaint about the scare tactics etc but I woukd think very carefully about not paying...I have just had a sim experience with Sky as thought I'd cancelled it but the closing balance hadnt been worked out when I rang....so I still owed money even though I thought I didnt! As mentioned above get them to confirm etc but would be safer to pay in the meantime...its also not just them who would have legal costs if it goes to court...is it worth it...really?...