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Bailiff enforcing warrant against non-existent company
Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the situation I'm facing. This week a bailiff visited our shop, waving a warrant of execution for a company that has no presence on the premises. This was made very clear very early on, but he was persuaded to leave only after charging around like a bull in a china shop for an hour and a half, scaring off customers (and he had to be physically blocked from entering the residential area above the shop, which would have done wonders for our relationship with our landlord...). He threatened to return in 2 days, leaving only after speaking to the police on the phone.
We then discovered that the company the warrant is for not only has no presence on the premises but was dissolved years ago; the warrant is surely unenforceable since the respondent doesn't exist! On being told this by phone, the bailiff said he didn't care and he'd still be coming back to demand proof that every item on the premises doesn't belong to the respondent (!), and taking whatever we don't have proof for - we can petition to have it back later! Eventually he bullied a senior member of our staff into personally paying the debt over the phone to prevent the bailiff's return - a debt neither he nor we as a company nor our premises has any responsibility for!
Reading this site I'm scared off doing an EAC2/Form4 despite the fact the guy clearly isn't fit to run a whelk stall, but I'd still like to try a small claims procedure for loss of sales and reputation, and I'm considering going to the police to ask them to consider this fraud.
I appreciate this isn't a consumer bailiff issue, but there are parallels with situations like the wrong person on the warrant, or the person's died, say, and the bailiff being hardcore "I don't care - you, standing in front of me at this address, pay me". And at the end of the day, although we as a small company are trying to deal with it, the debt has been paid by the wrong person, personally. So bearing that in mind, any advice?
We then discovered that the company the warrant is for not only has no presence on the premises but was dissolved years ago; the warrant is surely unenforceable since the respondent doesn't exist! On being told this by phone, the bailiff said he didn't care and he'd still be coming back to demand proof that every item on the premises doesn't belong to the respondent (!), and taking whatever we don't have proof for - we can petition to have it back later! Eventually he bullied a senior member of our staff into personally paying the debt over the phone to prevent the bailiff's return - a debt neither he nor we as a company nor our premises has any responsibility for!
Reading this site I'm scared off doing an EAC2/Form4 despite the fact the guy clearly isn't fit to run a whelk stall, but I'd still like to try a small claims procedure for loss of sales and reputation, and I'm considering going to the police to ask them to consider this fraud.
I appreciate this isn't a consumer bailiff issue, but there are parallels with situations like the wrong person on the warrant, or the person's died, say, and the bailiff being hardcore "I don't care - you, standing in front of me at this address, pay me". And at the end of the day, although we as a small company are trying to deal with it, the debt has been paid by the wrong person, personally. So bearing that in mind, any advice?
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