No bail warrant issued hm courts

[Adm1992]

rom hm courts & tribunals service stating there is a no bail warrant for my arrest. These are multiple fines and are over a 8 year period the amount being £230. Please could you tell me the chances of being sent to prison and what is best to do next, I have stupidly buried my head in the sand due to worry and can't afford to pay in full, any help would be much appreciated thanks

[stevemLS]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Hi, welcome to LB.

I used to work in a Magistrates Court albeit over 20 years ago.

It was rare for a no bail warrant to be issued to a fine defaulter and they were only issued where every other enforcement action had been taken.

The process is for the police to arrest you and you are then produced before the next available court sitting. The court will look at your means and any reasons you have for not paying the fine and only if it considers there to be a wilful refusal will it commit you to prison. It can make a suspended committal order where the court orders you to pay £x per week and if you fail to comply it activates the prison sentence.

The court will do virtually anything it can to avoid sending you to prison.

8 years is an awfully long time though for a relatively small sum.

If you want to get this dealt with, I would present myself at a police station, preferably one attached or adjacent to a magistrates court at 8am between Monday and Thursday and explain the circumstances. This gives themselves fair opportunity to sort themselves out and get you before a court that day. If they pick you up at 5pm you will likely have a night in police cells and worse, if it is 5pm on a Friday or Saturday two or even three nights before they can get you to court on the Monday.

[Adm1992]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Thank you for your reply, if I was to surrender myself to the courts early in a morning, would there be a chance they may not be able to fit me in, therefore be kept in custody until next day?

[Billy The KId]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Hello Adm 1992,

The first thing you must do is contact the court and offer to pay something, anything, off of what you owe. I very much doubt if you will be sent to prison but you may well be held in police custody until the court is satisfied you are making an effort to pay. Whatever you do, do not ignore it or you could get an unwelcome early morning call from Mister Plod. All the best, Billy the Kid

[stevemLS]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Thank you for your reply, if I was to surrender myself to the courts early in a morning, would there be a chance they may not be able to fit me in, therefore be kept in custody until next day?

There is a chance, but it is a remote chance.

As I said before, they don't want to keep people in custody unecessarily.

At the court I worked at, which was in a big city, we always had a court that had space in the list to deal with the "overnights" (it used to be part of my job to collect the "overnights" paperwork from the police and to get them listed. In the two years I was there we were NEVER unable to deal with a fine defaulter that had surrendered that day nor with somebody who had been arrested the day before and held in custody.

Now we have the Human Rights Act, the position of those arrested is further bolstered.

[Billy The KId]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Speak to the Duty Solicitor, take some, any money with you and when you appear in court, apologise, offer to pay in instalments you can afford, In those circumstances it would take a very hard magistrate to not show his understanding of your circumstances.

All the best, Billy the Kid.

[nemesis45]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

I'm surprised you haven't been arrested before with fines however small outstanding for 8
years.
If the warrant has been passed to the police the can and will turn up to arrest you.

nem

[Adm1992]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Thanks for your reply's guys, much appreciated. I will round up as much money as possible over the weekend and go to the courts Monday morning. The thought of handing myself in to go to prison was stopping me from sorting this out.

[nemesis45]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Thanks for your reply's guys, much appreciated. I will round up as much money as possible over the weekend and go to the courts Monday morning. The thought of handing myself in to go to prison was stopping me from sorting this out.

The warrant without bail is to make sure you get in front of the magistrate (s) so the matter can be disposed of, you are held until the next court session.

nem

[Adm1992]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

I don't mind being held at a police station until courts (as long as it's not over weekend). After all it would be my punishment for being so stupid to try ignore the situation, it was the possibility of a prison sentence I wasn't looking forward to no matter how small.

[nemesis45]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

I don't mind being held at a police station until courts (as long as it's not over weekend). After all it would be my punishment for being so stupid to try ignore the situation, it was the possibility of a prison sentence I wasn't looking forward to no matter how small.

The magistrate (s) will want to know why the fines were not paid, let's just say " I forgot" wont go down to well.

Paying in full would be a very good idea.

nem

[stevemLS]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Unless you're not giving us the full tale of any previous enforcement actions that have been taken AND you show a willingness to deal with the matter I can't say strongly enough how unlikely a prison sentence would be.

[Adm1992]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Never been to court before so first time. Thanks again

[stevemLS]

Re: No bail warrant issued hm courts

Take with you as much as you can to pay now and a detailed statement of means (income and expenditure) so that you show the magistrates you are willing to pay as much as you can reasonably afford.

Good luck and let us know how you go on.