Newlyn's & Local Authority clamped my car

sonial

Hi there..

I wonder if any forum member can help...

Newham council issued me with two tickets via cctv for parking 6mt away from the curb. However the land is privately owned and the car was not even parked on the road it was parked in our gateway...

These two fines were made back in 2010 and were sent to my old address. I had all my documents changed to my new address back 2006 when I moved. So I never ever received these notices.

Two weeks ago I was in sainsubury car park with my 6 year who I had just collected from school (agian the car park is privately owned) and two newlyn bayliffs parked behind my car and blocked it.. they told me my car had shown up on their system as they were driving around... they never showed me there id badges they just began to clamp my car.

I asked them why and one of them told me he will tell me once his laptop booted up.. I waited for 10mins and then asked the bayliff if he was going to be long as my son was hungry and wanted to go to the toilet. He responded by saying ' it will take as long as it does!' at this point I rang my boss who arrived as I felt really intimated by the bayliff.

When my boss arrived and told the bayliff that he was on private land and had no right to clamp me.. and asked why did they block my car in?

The two fines amount up to over £1200 and my car is only worth no more than £1000. I had to pay £480 to get my car realeased and now they want another £670. I told them that I had no idea of these fines.. i had moved and showed them my log book etc with my change of address. But they were not having any off it and told me to contact newham council...

I contacted newham council and asked them to send me photograhpic evidence, which they did and you can clearly see my car parked on private land just behind our gates.

I have been advised to go to court and complete a form? to declare that I honeslty had no idea of these two fines.

How do I get my money back if possible and get rid of Newlyn for the second payment? I also asked Newlyns for a breakdown of charges and the original warrant but the declined to give it to me.. instead they just sent me a letter informing me that they followed procedure and I should contact Newham Council for evidence.

If anyone can help I be very greatful.. as I have a disabled son and AM already struggling to keep my head above water...

Thank you so much...xxx

Nilrem

It sounds quite dodgy from what I can tell if they've issued the fines when the car wasn't parked on council land (IE your drive).

I think what they are talking about with the court, is that you go to any magistrates or higher court and talk to a clerk, they should let you do a declaration (I think it's effectively under oath), that you did not know about the fines being issued, or any summons to the court.
That should reset the judgement, as if you didn't receive the summons, you were in no position to contest them which goes against the normal idea of justice in the UK.

Quite what happens with the clampers I don't know - especially if they by the sounds of it acted outside the acceptable bounds (blocking your car in on private land, it's a pity your boss/car park didn't have it's own "enforcement" officers, as they could have clamped the trespassers).

I hope you get it sorted and a refund/apology.

give_them_FA

Another disgraceful story about the sort of psychopathic cowboys who would undoubtedly have spent half their lives in prison if they hadn't chanced upon this method of legal robbery.

Anyway, you need to go to the Traffic Enforcement Centre in Northampton. If you never received any paperwork, then you need to submit forms TE9 and TE7, you can phone for these to be sent, or obtain them online. One is a declaration that you did not get the paperwork, the other is an explanation as to why you are making the declaration outside of the normal time limit.

If necessary you will come in front of a district judge at your local court where you can offer all of your explanations. This is quite informal and there is no need to be nervous about it.

We had a very similar case on here recently where someone had their car clamped for a ticket they knew nothing about, and it all ended happily, so hopefully so will yours.

The idea is to get the original fines set back to the point at which you can appeal them- or at the very least be given the opportunity to pay a far smaller amount. You should then be able to reclaim what you have paid these robbing b*stards from either them or the Council.

What puzzles me though, is if you changed the address in 2006, why would DVLA still have given out the old address. Have you checked what the current address they have for you is? Not that it affects your right to appeal.

This isn't an easy one, so while I have tried to give you general advice, you may be well advised to put this up on another forum called pepipoo (google it) which does specialise more in problems with local councils.

You could also think about involving the press. Most councils do not like negative publicity....

and with thanks and respect, Nilrem, the TEC is the proper forum for progressing the matter!

peter_the_piper

Furthermore a contact with bailiffeadviceonline.co.uk would be called for here. There is a small fee £10.00 but they are worth it for the depth of knowledge they have. Sometime Herbie looks on here as well. Post all this also on pepipoo.com.

Coupon-mad

Yep, get over to pepipoo forums now and resolve this:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

They will help you with this straight away, keep your thread current. Hide the car out of sight in a garage until you have had confirmation that your forms from TEC have been accepted and the Council have called off the bailiff. SEND THE FORMS IMMEDIATELY THIS WEEK!! Ask pepipoo for the details.

Then you can deal with appealing the PCNs without being under threat, and can ask pepipoo about getting that amount you already were forced to pay, hopefully refunded.