Mistaken Identity

kateyleah

Hi there, sorry if this is the wrong place for this, but I couldn’t find an appropriate category.
My partner has been the unfortunate victim of mistaken identity. Basically there is a man in the Birmingham area who committed fraud. His case went to magistrates court and a fine was issued. This man has the exact same name and date of birth as my partner, but lives in Birmingham. The person in question didn’t attend court and so the fine was passed to bailiffs. 

The bailiffs have done some research and come across my partners credit report and decided they must be the same person and so are now pursuing him for the debt. He’s spoken to the court and the bailiffs and both agree that it’s an error, however they keep referring him to each other - the bailiffs state the will pursue they warrant with us until it’s either paid or the court remove the warrant. The courts won’t remove the warrant as it’s still legitimate and they didn’t make the error the bailiffs did. He’s being pushed from the courts to the bailiffs and back again. 

Apparently as it’s a court warrant the bailiffs can force entry to our home and gain access using locksmiths. 

We’ve spoken to a solicitor who basically said we’d be better off paying the fine as pursuing it legally will cost more.
as you can imagine we are extremely frustrated by this and don’t want to pay a fine we don’t owe. Anyone have any advice? I can see that there’s a complaints process for bailiffs but in the interim the bailiffs can force entry and take our belongings 😭

swingaloo

You had the same problem with mistaken identity in 2019?

tacpot12

Do you have any evidence that your parter and the person in Birmingham are not the same person? Is there evidence in the court case from Birmingham that can be used to show that they are not the same person?

Without some evidence, I think you will struggle to avoid the baliffs taking whatever action they can.

kateyleah

We have evidence by way of ID, the guy with the warrant was arrested and so they have his image on file, so this doesn’t match my partners ID. We also have a full address history with credit report for my partner none of which is in Birmingham where apparently the chap in question lives/lived. 

My partner has provided this and the court and bailiff agree he’s not the same person. We just can’t get either of them to correct the error their end 🤷‍♀️
bailiffs say it’s the courts responsibility and the courts say the bailiffs need to correct 😭

kateyleah

Not me in 2019. This is the first time this has come up

kateyleah

We can’t get evidence from the court case as it’s protected under GDPR, but the courts have it 

Devongardener

You have a similar thread in 2019

noitsnotme

kateyleah said:

Not me in 2019. This is the first time this has come up

You posted this thread in 2019 - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6035143/stolen-identity#latest

kateyleah

Oh yes! I forgot about that, same problem, same guy. The water company were really helpful though and removed the debt. This time we aren’t getting anywhere! 

HillStreetBlues

Is your partners first name Jonah?

swingaloo

kateyleah said:

Not me in 2019. This is the first time this has come up

Then you have another stolen identity problem then as your user name  started a thread in 2019 about the very same subject.