Confusion at Magistrate court and wrong address

beauty_in_colour

I am not sure where to start so please can anyone point me in the right direction as I may not even have the right category.
This is the gist of the issue: my son was caught on camera by a cyclist after what was considered to be a poor and misjudged overtaking a cyclist manoeuvre. In other words driving without due care and attention. The police sent the forms to the wrong address using 13 instead of 3 which is the correct house number. 

To cut a very long story short my son discovered the police error through emails with the police and wrote to the court a few days before the hearing and explaining he did not have any of the documents from the court and had he received them, he would have put in an early guilty plea and accepted any fines and penalties.
The court acknowledged this email letter stating it was all on file.
several weeks went by and he heard nothing until one day out of the blue he received a text message from CDER group bailiffs stating they were sending a vehicle to his house to collects goods. 

Calling the bailiffs revealed an even more confusing situation, they were calling at an address he hasn’t lived at for over 5 years.
We called the court yesterday and couldn’t get past the admin person who insisted we send an email to explain the situation. We can’t speak to anyone on the legal team and the bailiff text messages arrive daily. 

What is the best move forward? We need to see the original court documents and we need to stop the bailiff threat. My son totally acknowledges his oversight but the situation has become a nightmare. We have no idea how much the original fine was but it is currently sitting at over £830 with the bailiffs. What can we do? 

It’s Buckingham Magistrates court 
kind regards Anne 
ps if I have used the wrong category, please point me in the right direction if you can. 

Keep_pedalling

You might be better off posting on the FTLA board, even better get you son to post on there.

https://www.ftla.uk/speeding-and-other-criminal-offences/

Nasqueron

beauty_in_colour said:

I am not sure where to start so please can anyone point me in the right direction as I may not even have the right category.
This is the gist of the issue: my son was caught on camera by a cyclist after what was considered to be a poor and misjudged overtaking a cyclist manoeuvre. In other words driving without due care and attention. The police sent the forms to the wrong address using 13 instead of 3 which is the correct house number. 

To cut a very long story short my son discovered the police error through emails with the police and wrote to the court a few days before the hearing and explaining he did not have any of the documents from the court and had he received them, he would have put in an early guilty plea and accepted any fines and penalties.
The court acknowledged this email letter stating it was all on file.
several weeks went by and he heard nothing until one day out of the blue he received a text message from CDER group bailiffs stating they were sending a vehicle to his house to collects goods. 

Calling the bailiffs revealed an even more confusing situation, they were calling at an address he hasn’t lived at for over 5 years.

When did he update the car and licence documents after moving (both must be done, not just one)?

We called the court yesterday and couldn’t get past the admin person who insisted we send an email to explain the situation.

What response did you get when you emailed them?

We can’t speak to anyone on the legal team and the bailiff text messages arrive daily. 

What is the best move forward? We need to see the original court documents and we need to stop the bailiff threat. My son totally acknowledges his oversight but the situation has become a nightmare. We have no idea how much the original fine was but it is currently sitting at over £830 with the bailiffs. What can we do? 

It’s Buckingham Magistrates court 
kind regards Anne 
ps if I have used the wrong category, please point me in the right direction if you can. 

Details above - you need to check the V5C and driving licence to see what address is on there to establish why the bailiffs are going to the wrong place.

Has he already got a CCJ issued (hence the bailiffs)? He'd have to apply for a set aside for this, though whether the police would do it by consent is a different matter even if it was their error

Car_54

Nasqueron said:

Has he already got a CCJ issued (hence the bailiffs)? He'd have to apply for a set aside for this, though whether the police would do it by consent is a different matter even if it was their error

1. Is a CCJ necessary to enforce a criminal court fine? I don't believe so.

2. Since he's been convicted, it now has nothing to do with the police.

3. Maybe the bailiffs are pursuing an entirely different matter, hence the 5-year-old address?

DullGreyGuy

Nasqueron said:
Has he already got a CCJ issued (hence the bailiffs)? He'd have to apply for a set aside for this, though whether the police would do it by consent is a different matter even if it was their error

The County Court deals with civil matters not criminal, criminal cases are heard in the Magistrate's Court, as the OP says their sons was, or escalated to the Crown Court for more serious matters. 

TooManyPoints

Before you worry about addresses and so on, please answer one question: has your son been convicted of an offence via proceedings of which he was not aware? That is, did he receive no notification of the court proceedings which led (presumably) to a fine being imposed which the bailiffs are now attempting to collect? It doesn't matter (at this stage) why he didn't receive any notification, just whether or not he did.

Okell

@beauty_in_colour -  if bailiffs are involved you need to act quickly

I would suggest:

1.  You (or preferably your son) do as keep_pedalling advised and post on FTLA:   Speeding and other criminal offences (ftla.uk).  Also:

2.  Answer the question posed by TooManyPoints.

3.  Get your son to check his car's V5C to confirm the Registered Keeper's address is correct. (Assuming he is the registered Keeper, that is)

4.  You (your son) need to put together a timeline of events starting with the alleged incident and including all documentation he has received, what that documentation said, when it was dated, when it was received, and what address was used.  You need to clearly lay out all the information you have

beauty_in_colour

Than many thanks for your comments. My son’s vehicle is a company car so not registered to his address. The original police notification was sent to his work address and they passed it on to him. He then completed the form and returned it to the police. The police appear to have recorded an incorrect address right at the beginning using no 13 instead of no 3. We have a text message record of the police asking for his correct address which they confirmed but still all the documents were sent to no 13, so my son never received any paper work. 

beauty_in_colour

@TooManyPoints the answer to your question is yes. My son did not receive any notification directly from the court. Had he received one, he would have been more than happy to enter an early guilty plea and deal with the matter.
He found out directly from the police 2 days before the hearing that the hearing was to take place. The policeman then emailed him a copy of the court documents which is where we noticed the incorrect address. We promptly wrote to the court both via email and recorded delivery to highlight the error. The court emailed back to acknowledge receipt of the email and to state it was on file. We heard nothing more until the bailiff text messages. Hope this explains things. Please let me know if you have any more questions 

beauty_in_colour

@Nasqueron The bailiffs are definitely pursuing the same matter. I spoke with them myself to ascertain that fact as I too thought it odd they would attend an old address. It wasn’t even the wrong address initially used by the court, but a completely different one. 

beauty_in_colour

Thank you @Okell and everyone else. I will go to the ftla forum. Thanks once again.