Waters & Gate Threatening Debt Collection - Province of Pisa Italy

Umkomaas

Lukas018 said:

OK. What is the next best course of action please? 

Ignore them. Inaction is your best form of action!

D_P_Dance

Perhaps Nos is right, perhaps not.  Best to seek advice, (but not imo, here).

nosferatu1001

Better to go to the pepipoo forum which has dealt with dozens of these on the criminal subforum. 

beamerguy

As above good advice.
Waters & Gate are just another debt collector chancing their luck.  They offer a "no win no fee" to their clients so they have added their charge on to you.  Just like the debt wallies do in the UK parking issues.  Very doubtful they purchased the debt from Italian authorities. If they did, english law says they must tell you if they did and include a letter of assignment from the original debtor.

It's safe to say this was not the case and as such they would struggle to get close to a county court in the UK with an Italian claimant.

Best to forget you ever contacted them and ignore from now on.  Just block all phone calls and do not respond to any letters.

Forgetting chase up letters, if you hear more do come back

If (very doubtful) they try it on again with a letter before claim, then they need to provide the authority to do this and if they have not purchased the debt, they don't own it

nosferatu1001

They CANT buy the Italian "debt", as it is not a private matter but something that has to be looked at in a court. 

Lukas018

Thanks very much we will ignore them from now on, there is a criminal issue here, just going off their pathetic emails. Regarding buying the debt I used wrong words, it is no win no fee as you state makes more sense. I will come back and update if we ever get a response.

Teedles

W&G sent me similar letters for a speeding offence near Pisa, together with photographic proof.

They said that they were acting on behalf of the Pisa authorities and that they did not 'own' the debt, so we start with a lie.

 I have ignored them since last November having told them that I would gladly see them in court to resolve these constant 'scams' - posting on all the motoring forums to let everyone know the result - to date I have had no response.

I really thought that they would have given up chasing people for non enforcable fines, but some must be paying to justify their time.

beamerguy

nosferatu1001 said:

They CANT buy the Italian "debt", as it is not a private matter but something that has to be looked at in a court. 

Which court ?

nosferatu1001

Magistrates, under teh cross border directive, and the UK courts would keep the proceeds if the case is "won" by the Italian authorities. So there is literlaly NO incentive for them to do so. Hence we've never seen a single case. 

silverwhistle

There was a recent similar case in The Guardian consumer pages: the advice given was the same as here.. Ignore.