Stuck overseas and had a CCJ applied against me - No help form the court

Yanusmc

Hello, looking for some help. (also posted in the credit ratings, but it is partly an armed forces issue)
I'm in the Armed forces and have been deployed in the middle east since Feb 2020 which no chance to come back because of Covid19.  I checked my credit score a few weeks ago, it's normally almost 999 but I saw it had taken a massive dip and that I had a CCJ applied by Northampton County Court.  I emailed the court to check if this was a mistake and they said it was by "VEHICLE CONTROL SERVICES  LIMITED" for £185 for a parking ticket in April 2018.  They said I had been served a form and didn't respond, I pointed out that I have been deployed overseas for over 12 months and hadn't received anything and they then gave me my parents address (including my name misspelled), I told them I don't live at that address and they basically said nothing they could do and that I would have to pay £255 to challenge it.
When I explained that I'm deployed and just want the same right to defend myself the court came back with:

"My colleague has previously explained you have the same options available to you as anyone else:

i.you can pay in full to the Claimant (this office doesn't take payments - we only act as liaison between Claimants and Defendants)

ii.apply to pay by instalments (Variation Form N245 - fee £14

iii. apply to set the Judgment aside (Application Form N244 fee £255)."

I can appreciate your concerns : the judgment will remain on your credit record for up to six years. However, under the current extreme circumstances, I can only wish you the best.   Please refer to my colleagues' previous emails for further information."
I last replied to the court to point out that the address is incorrect but they have stopped replying (maybe because of Easter but the tone was as if they had little concern).
This feels like the court assumes I'm guilty and I have no option to to pay the fine or pay a larger amount to challenge it.  It's stressful and depressing particularly as I always take care of my finances, I'm very modest with my spending and have made sacrifices like this deployment to save money and then something like this happens.
Other difficulties are I could get time off to return to the UK but I would have to quarantine for 2 weeks in the UK and then quarantine for 2 weeks when I returned here (otherwise I would have come back before now).
Are those my only options?  It doesn't seem a fair system at all, where parking companies can lodge debts against people up to the price to challenge it and if they cannot respond for genuine reasons they just have to pay it.    Any advice would be appreciated.

Silvertabby

Probably legal, but I agree totally unfair.  

Could your personnel officer help - it may just be a question of them speaking to the right person in the Court.  Long shot, but worth a try.

Over 20 years ago, when I was a Sgt P1 in the RAF,  the CO of an airman serving overseas rang me to say that he had just received his forwarded mail, which included a Court summons for the next day (very minor speeding offence).  I rang the Court to explain that the airman wasn't due to return to the UK for several weeks, and to ask that the hearing be deferred.  The Court clerk asked me if he was 'chasing penguins' or 'building sandcastles' to which I replied 'building sandcastles'.  The clerk then told me that as the offence really was minor, he had deleted the record from the system, and to tell the lad to 'keep his head down and stop worrying about trivia'.  Turned out the clerk was a retired Army WO.

Yanusmc

Silvertabby said:

Probably legal, but I agree totally unfair.  

Could your personnel officer help - it may just be a question of them speaking to the right person in the Court.  Long shot, but worth a try.

Over 20 years ago, when I was a Sgt P1 in the RAF,  the CO of an airman serving overseas rang me to say that he had just received his forwarded mail, which included a Court summons for the next day (very minor speeding offence).  I rang the Court to explain that the airman wasn't due to return to the UK for several weeks, and to ask that the hearing be deferred.  The Court clerk asked me if he was 'chasing penguins' or 'building sandcastles' to which I replied 'building sandcastles'.  The clerk then told me that as the offence really was minor, he had deleted the record from the system, and to tell the lad to 'keep his head down and stop worrying about trivia'.  Turned out the clerk was a retired Army WO.

I'm not in a unit at the moment, I'm in the only person here and there's very little support, Brexit transition and dealing with Covid has sucked up any personnel effort, even getting post is very difficult.

MovingForwards

It's actually the motoring section you want as there's loads of info and help relating to parking tickets.

Yanusmc

MovingForwards said:

It's actually the motoring section you want as there's loads of info and help relating to parking tickets.

Ah, ok, I'll post it there (there's where I've picked up some of the reading), thank you

macman

If they sent it to the address given as that of the registered keeper then service has been legally made, so you won't get a set-aside on that basis.