Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

No explanation whatsoever ? Presumably you wrote to them after receiving the last summons ?

No none.

The council is reluctant to admit it but it relies solely on the computer system to allocate payments in a set way when there are amounts outstanding relating to different years.

It says it can't reveal the way its system operates on the grounds that the software is copyrighted, i.e., disclosure of the instructions would prejudice its IT contractor's position in relation to its Council Tax processing system.

However, what I believe is the top secret information has been released by other councils.


The following I think sums up how its system works against taxpayers:

Parameters are set in its payment allocation system such that it only recognises exact sums. If for example your first Council Tax instalment is £99.99 and you pay £100 into your account, then the councils computer will only allocate this sum to the current year's account if there is no amount outstanding / disputed belonging to a previous year.

If you do have an amount outstanding / disputed etc. then the council's allocation system will not recognise the payment because the amount differs by 1p. It then allocates the amount to the previous year's account with the effect of putting your current year's account in arrears.

The council's automated reminder notice is then triggered because parameters are set to do this when the account balance does not match what it should after a number of days in arrears (those numbers of days also determined by set parameters).

Similarly a summons will be automatically sent (parameters set again) and it likely that court costs will be incurred.

All of this still doesn't explain why payments are not re-allocated as soon as the relevant revenues department has been notified. In this case it's a mystery why suddenly out of the blue the council withdrew recovery through the Magistrates' court and associated costs.

[Amethyst]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

No explanation whatsoever ? Presumably you wrote to them after receiving the last summons ?

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Without any explanation the council have notified me that there's no longer a need to attend court.

Payments have been re-allocated, the summons withdrawn and costs removed.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

A summons has arrived this morning which means the £60 that I noticed added to my account on 10 November was the costs it added in respect of issuing the summons. The hearing date is 28 November.

This proves not only that they have fraudulently added these costs, but they have no way of justifying that this sum has been reasonably incurred. The proceedings have been instituted solely on account of its computer system. There has been no cost to the council other than the £3 for the Magistrates court fee and a few pence for its discounted postal service.

Note:

The council obviously make no checks before instituting court action and can claim nothing regarding such expenditure. If they had they would have discovered that the payment default was caused by a glitch in its council tax software.

This has even been spelt out to the morons which they chose to ignore.

The doctored signature on the summons is that of the Clerk to the Justices who is the person in connection with a judicial complaint regarding perverting the course of justice (2 September 2014) which has been ignored completely. The same Justices' Clerk is or was the secretary of the body to which the complaint was made so it would seem that the corruption within the judiciary is limitless.

Edit:

Included in the summonsed amount is a sum of £60 for which they already have a liability order from a previous year.

ARE THEY SAFE?

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

The council has not replied and doubt that it will in order to collect its fraudulent court costs.

This has just been reported to Action Fraud and it states the following on its website:

If you know anyone else who believes they have been a victim of fraud who wants to report the incident please ask them to complete the online report found at www.actionfraud.police.uk, or phone the contact centre on 0300 123 2040.

If similar has happened to anyone reading this thread then it would seem that the Police want to know about it.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Failings brought about by councils attempting to automate administration so that they can eliminate the use of paid employees raises much wider issues than the inconvenience it causes Council Taxpayers.

As detailed in the above posts, the council left it to its software to instigate court proceedings, relying solely on the fact a payment didn't match exactly (to the penny) the instalment amount. For this case, and all others like it (every local authority), the council will be invoiced from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) a sum of £3 in respect of the court fee for making complaint to the court. The council will be liable to pay this even though complaint was made in error and it won't be recovered from me.

Benefit Reforms

This is just the tip of the iceberg. When the benefit reforms were introduced, the government must have known that because of the bedroom tax and council tax benefit cuts, the number of people falling in arrears and subject to liability orders and court costs would sky rocket. It must also have known that in hundreds and thousands of cases, councils would stand no chance of recovering monies from individuals incurring the costs. In these cases, the MoJ will still invoice councils for the £3 for each complaint so the local authority has to pay the court (another government body) thousands of pounds which it is unable to recover.

That little manoeuvre is stealthily taxing the public as in these cases it is not the individual defaulting on payment who pays this but the taxpayer in general.

A master stroke by the government in using local authorities, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Court Service to bring in an extra 'x' amount of £millions each year.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

The email sent today (10 November) to the council:

From: outlawla
To: counciltax@nelincs.gov.uk
Sent: November 10, 2014
Subject: Council Tax reminder - 550xxxxxxx

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Council Tax reminder – 550xxxxxxx

ISSUE 1

I contacted NELC on 16 October 2014 regarding my Council Tax account (see details below). I received acknowledgement the same day and was informed that the council aimed to respond to the query within 10 working days (also below). North East Lincolnshire Council never responded.

ISSUE 2

I believed I made payment with regards my November instalment via internet banking on the 7th of this month. Today I checked North East Lincolnshire Council's website to make sure the remaining balance had reduced accordingly and noticed the balance had increased by £60 (the equivalent of summons costs).

My online account shows no record of the £89 payment I made on 7 November 2014 and have no explanation as to why the transaction failed. However, this morning I made a transaction (£89.00) which I believe has been successful and will be in North East Lincolnshire Council's bank account shortly.

ISSUE 3

I'm assuming that North East Lincolnshire Council has added £60 to my account today. Regardless of what I assume is a bank failure detailed in "issue 2", North East Lincolnshire Council is not justified in adding a £60 sum to my account.

The notice I received on 16 October 2014 (Dated 13 October) is the only statutory reminder I have received in the current year, which was sent erroneously (therefore void). The required number of reminders have therefore not been sent and the council, if it has made complaint to the Magistrates' court, has done so unlawfully.This is evidence of maladministration, more so, given that North East Lincolnshire Council negligently failed to address my email on the 16th of October.

ISSUE 4

Please be aware that if this query is similarly ignored and the concerns not remedied I will be reporting this to the police as an attempt of North East Lincolnshire Council to defraud me.



Yours sincerely

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

The email was sent on 16 October to the council:

From: outlawla
To: counciltax@nelincs.gov.uk
Sent: October 16, 2014
Subject: Council Tax reminder - 550xxxxxxx

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Council Tax reminder – 550xxxxxxx

I have received a reminder this morning stating that my payments are overdue.

I can verify that my payments are up to date.

In order to stop this escalating unnecessary I will suggest where the problem may lie.

My instalment (£89) was paid several days ago in two transactions (£80 and £9) on the same day. The reason being I was not at home and no reference to hand and mistakenly thought my instalment was £80 and realised afterwards it was in fact £89.

Presumably NELC's council tax system has not recognised the payment and therefore allocated it to a previous year's account. This, I suspect, has caused this situation.

If this is the case, please reallocate payment to the this year's account. If there's another reason for the anomaly please explain what is required.


Yours sincerely