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Hi,
Can someone give me a steer please, if I am in the right place?
I'll post up the letter I am about to email to the Court.
I am writing to complain about the way we have been treated by your Court.
As a potted history our car was caught on camera in the spring of 2008 speeding on a road in Wiltshire. Correspondance was sent to us which I did not receive. My husband had between 2006 and 2011 severe mental health issues following a breakdown. He was at crisis point and one his triggers was post. As a result he would throw it away. We only disovered this when he owned it to his medical team.
At the time the Court sent a Bailiff to our house and left my husband in pieces. Eventually he put it back to the court of the grounds of vulnerability. I let the Court know and asked if I could attend for a statutory declaration and then start the process again, and from memory a similar conversation happened again in 2009 / 10. I waited for an answer as to why I couldn’t make a statutory demand and start again on the grounds I hadn’t know about the first court hearing and no answer came.
At the start of July this year, some 3 to 4 years after your last contact I received a demand for £600 for this fine. I again asked the Court what I should do. I was told to write to Chippenham Court and ask for a statutory demand and the paperwork by a Wendy Shutler. I did this and to date have had no response. Then on Monday August 12th I had a Bailiffs letter saying I had to pay £600 by Friday. I called again and was told no date had been set and so I was out of time.
I called Chippenham Court who told me they could find no records so a date hadn’t been set. I tried to call you again but emailed instead as you were engaged nearly all afternoon.
Again, no response. Today I discharged myself from hospital following an operation to try and resolve the matter. I called the court who told me:
a) I should have been told to ask for a statutory declaration at my home court in Torbay.
b) No paper files exist in the Court after 3 years but records are held on computer and Wendy could have easily printed those and sent them to me when I first asked.
c) The Bailiff should be stopped given our vulnerability, to outline:
1) My husband is better but still fragile. Its been a long road to recovery which has left us with nothing, as a result
2) Our house is being repossessed, anything we owned has been sold to try and keep a roof over our children’s head’s and we have nothing left.
3) I am physically not well. I had two lots of major surgery last year and am now starting another round with the initial exploratory work being done this morning so
4) Our income is even more reduced as I am self employed and have no income as I am sick.
5) I receive Disability Living Allowance which gives some indication of the extent of our vulnerability.
I will be trying to get to my local court in the morning to make a Statutory Declaration. I will be saying that when the hearing happened I knew nothing about it and would have returned all paperwork / attended had I done. I will ask for them to rescind the initial order made and for it to be started again.
The stress your department has given us in the last month has been astronomical as had the false information and your continual representation that we can have no time to pay. We haven’t wanted time to pay, we have wanted this to start again as we are entitled to do.
No one at any time has answered the question ‘why has this taken a further 3 years to come up again?’ Where has it been in this time? Why do you think it is OK to hit people who you know, from the records you have are a) vulnerable and b) have outlined the situation around the fine to you time and time again yet you have not followed procedure; why have you not responded to any emails we have sent?
I am tonight going to try and register a complaint with the Ombudsman in the hope they can intervene. You cannot treat people in this way.
I look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours faithfully
Can someone give me a steer please, if I am in the right place?
I'll post up the letter I am about to email to the Court.
I am writing to complain about the way we have been treated by your Court.
As a potted history our car was caught on camera in the spring of 2008 speeding on a road in Wiltshire. Correspondance was sent to us which I did not receive. My husband had between 2006 and 2011 severe mental health issues following a breakdown. He was at crisis point and one his triggers was post. As a result he would throw it away. We only disovered this when he owned it to his medical team.
At the time the Court sent a Bailiff to our house and left my husband in pieces. Eventually he put it back to the court of the grounds of vulnerability. I let the Court know and asked if I could attend for a statutory declaration and then start the process again, and from memory a similar conversation happened again in 2009 / 10. I waited for an answer as to why I couldn’t make a statutory demand and start again on the grounds I hadn’t know about the first court hearing and no answer came.
At the start of July this year, some 3 to 4 years after your last contact I received a demand for £600 for this fine. I again asked the Court what I should do. I was told to write to Chippenham Court and ask for a statutory demand and the paperwork by a Wendy Shutler. I did this and to date have had no response. Then on Monday August 12th I had a Bailiffs letter saying I had to pay £600 by Friday. I called again and was told no date had been set and so I was out of time.
I called Chippenham Court who told me they could find no records so a date hadn’t been set. I tried to call you again but emailed instead as you were engaged nearly all afternoon.
Again, no response. Today I discharged myself from hospital following an operation to try and resolve the matter. I called the court who told me:
a) I should have been told to ask for a statutory declaration at my home court in Torbay.
b) No paper files exist in the Court after 3 years but records are held on computer and Wendy could have easily printed those and sent them to me when I first asked.
c) The Bailiff should be stopped given our vulnerability, to outline:
1) My husband is better but still fragile. Its been a long road to recovery which has left us with nothing, as a result
2) Our house is being repossessed, anything we owned has been sold to try and keep a roof over our children’s head’s and we have nothing left.
3) I am physically not well. I had two lots of major surgery last year and am now starting another round with the initial exploratory work being done this morning so
4) Our income is even more reduced as I am self employed and have no income as I am sick.
5) I receive Disability Living Allowance which gives some indication of the extent of our vulnerability.
I will be trying to get to my local court in the morning to make a Statutory Declaration. I will be saying that when the hearing happened I knew nothing about it and would have returned all paperwork / attended had I done. I will ask for them to rescind the initial order made and for it to be started again.
The stress your department has given us in the last month has been astronomical as had the false information and your continual representation that we can have no time to pay. We haven’t wanted time to pay, we have wanted this to start again as we are entitled to do.
No one at any time has answered the question ‘why has this taken a further 3 years to come up again?’ Where has it been in this time? Why do you think it is OK to hit people who you know, from the records you have are a) vulnerable and b) have outlined the situation around the fine to you time and time again yet you have not followed procedure; why have you not responded to any emails we have sent?
I am tonight going to try and register a complaint with the Ombudsman in the hope they can intervene. You cannot treat people in this way.
I look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours faithfully
